


Protectors of Earth

by NatLannister



Series: Freedom Fighters Series [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Multi, Sequel, superhero, the boys have powers, the world has been destroyed and they need to fix it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-11-09 12:24:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 45,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11104524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NatLannister/pseuds/NatLannister
Summary: The lads thought defeating the Fearsome Five would be the end of their story. They thought there were no more people left with powers, but they were wrong. When a new threat rises, the boys have to form a new army to defeat them.This is a sequel to Freedom Fighters, so I suggest reading the first one before this.





	1. Prologue

The moon sat high in the sky, giving off just enough light where all could be seen. There was no wind and the air was a nice temperature where it wasn't too cold or hot. On the ground slept the Freedom Fighters, who were tired from a long day of using their powers.

It was quiet except for the snores that left Zayn's mouth. The peace of the night though couldn't last.

The once soft grass under the lads turned rugged and rough. It began to grow taller by the second, soon towering over the sleeping boys. Louis tossed and turned in his sleep, letting out an occasional groan. Sweat covered his forehead as he tossed and turned.

The sharp grass surrounded Liam, who decided to sleep without a blanket. Liam sat up with the feeling of getting stabbed by hundreds of tiny needles. "Not again" he sighed, pushing the plants out of his face and off his body. He slowly got into a standing position, making sure his barefeet didn't step on the hazardous grass. Last time that happened he screamed so loud that the others thought they were under attack. And if Liam could, he wanted to avoid waking up his boyfriends, they deserved to rest.

Liam glanced down at a sleeping Zayn, as he crept towards Louis. He swore the boy could sleep through anything. Next to him was Niall, the blonde was buried under so many layers of blankets he didn't even sense the growth of the plant. Liam wished he had a kept a blanket to sleep with. Maybe he could have prevented being attacked by the grass.

The closer he got to his sleeping boyfriend, the more denser and thicker the grass became. "Ouch" Harry yelped, shooting up into the air. He soared as high as his body would let him, but he was exhausted. He hovered high enough that the grass no longer touched him.

"Harry" Liam called out, "do you see Louis? We need to wake him up."

The curly haired lad was too tired to even respond. Instead he groaned loudly, and looked around. He knew Liam could figure out what he meant. All he could see was a sea of green. As much as Harry liked the color green, he was getting quite annoyed of waking up to it every night. "If I weren't dating Louis, I would have probably killed him by now" Harry stated, rubbing his tired eyes.

Liam couldn't tell if the floating lad was joking or not, but he was too sleepy to care. "Should we try screaming for him to wake up?" Harry yawned, his eyes closing slightly.

The other boy shook his head no. "Remember Harry it doesn't work, we end up waking a very pissed off Zayn."

Both lads then went silent, trying to find Louis before he did anything worse. Finally after using shark rocks to cut through the grass, Liam finally stumbled upon the sleeping boy. He gently tried to wake Louis up, whispering soothing words to him.

The calming words were cut off, when Liam was shoved out of the way by a grumpy Harry. He grabbed Louis by the hem of his shirt and shook him awake.

Louis's eyes shot open and he was met with Harry's angry green eyes. "I did it again, didn't I" Louis said, bowing his head in shame. The silence he was met with was enough of an answer for him. "I'm sorry" he cried, not meeting the other's gaze.

Harry let go of his boyfriend, when he saw the grass retreat back into the ground. "Well I'm going back to sleep. You can deal with this, Liam" Harry murmured, his eyes threatening to close. He walked over to sleeping lump of Niall, and grabbed one of the blankets. "I'll be up in the trees if you need me. Seems trees are the only place where I sleep peacefully, without having to be woken up by Louis." Harry glided away and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

"Was it the same dream?" Liam asked, trying to take Louis's mind off of Harry's rude behaviour.

"Yea" Louis hiccuped out, wiping away his tears. "I shouldn't keep having the same nightmare of fighting the Fearsome Five. Our fight was over a month ago."

"It was a scarring battle and we each coped differently."

"But the others don't have nightmares that keep everybody up at night."

Liam sighed, and sat down next to his boyfriend. He wrapped his arm around his shoulder, and pulled Louis in. "Listen Louis, we all love you. No amount of nightmares and pointy grass is going to change what we think about you." Liam kissed the lad on the cheek, and offered to cuddle with Louis for the rest of the night.

Louis gladly accepted his boyfriend's offer, as he felt his eyelids grow heavy. The two fell asleep with Louis cuddled against Liam's chest. There was no nightmare that disturbed them for the rest of the night.

In the morning Zayn and Niall woke up without any trouble, since they were never woken up the night before. Niall hovered over Liam and Louis, deciding on whether or not he should wake up. A hand gently grasped his shoulder, and he heard Zayn whisper in his ear "let them sleep. I think they had a long night."

Niall quietly nodded his head and tip toed away from his sleeping boyfriends. "Where's Harry?" he asked in a hushed voice.

Zayn shrugged and went back to his task of starting a fire. "Go find him, while I make us breakfast."

The first place Niall checked for the curly haired lad were the trees. Whenever Louis had a nightmare, Harry would find the tallest tree, and sleep on one of the branches. He looked around, trying to guess which tree his boyfriend would be in.

He choose the wide tree on the far side of the campsite. The branches were wide and long enough to have a body sleep on them. Each branch Niall climbed on, the further he got from the ground.

Usually Harry would sleep towards the bottom of the tree but it seemed as though today was different. He didn't see Harry in any of the nearby trees so Niall climbed higher up.

The boy kept telling himself to not look down, but it was impossible not too. His blue eyes crept to the side where he saw the ground was a tiny dot. A squeak left his mouth, as he clung to the tree with dear life.

He closed his eyes and tried to compose himself, before attempting to climb back down. Just as he was about to step down, the branch started to crack. "No no no" Niall worried, as the branch broke underneath his feet.

Niall screamed bloody murder as he fell to the ground. About halfway to the grass, he stopped mid fall and hovered in the air. "I swear Niall, you can't do anything without almost dying" Harry joked, flying down to the panicked blonde. "What the hell were you doing up in a tree?"

"I was looking for you" Niall answered, his cheeks going red from slight embarrassment. "It isn't my fault the tree branch decided to break when I stepped on it."

"Only you would find the broken branch."

Harry's lips soon met Niall's, and the boys fell into a deep kiss. They closed their eyes and fell into the kiss. Niall didn't even realise he was back on the ground, until Harry broke away to catch his breath. "That is how I like starting my mornings" Harry said with a smile.

"You like saving me, or kissing me?"

"A bit of both, but mostly the kissing part."

The two held hands, walking towards the campfire. "Are the others awake?" Niall asked, taking a second to smell how amazing the food was.

"Well no normal person can sleep through you screaming at the top of their lungs" Zayn replied, with a smug look on his face. "I swear Niall, I make you do one simple task and you fall out of freakin tree."

"Can we please move on from the whole tree incident?"

"Not until I laugh at least one more time" Harry said with a smirk.

Liam and Louis soon joined them next to the fire. Louis kept his head hung low, refusing to meet Harry's gaze. In an attempt to lighten the mood, the blonde retold his embarrassing story of falling out of the tree to make Louis smile.

All the tale accomplished was a gasp from Liam as he exclaimed "was that why I heard screaming this morning."

Breakfast was filled with small talk. They all knew Louis had another nightmare last night. He only acts like a shy person, when he has one of his bad dreams.

A small voice whispered out, interrupting the small talk, "I'm sorry for waking you up, Harry." All other conversation ended and all eyes landed on Louis after he spoke.

With a sigh, Harry put down his food. "It's fine. You can't control your dreams. I should be the one saying sorry for how I acted last night."

"You did nothing wrong."

"Yes I did Louis. I acted like a grumpy dickhead. What kind of boyfriend snaps at the love of his life. The answer is a shitty one." Harry walked over to Louis and kissed his hand. "I promise I won't be so mean next time I wake up from one of your nightmares."

A smile spread across Louis's face. "Thank you" he said, sitting up and meeting the others eyes. "So what's this I hear about you falling out of a tree, Niall?"

"Ugh, I hate you guys."


	2. Day of Rest

Liam kept telling his teammates they should rest. None of them realized how much Germany would need to be fixed. They expected to be there a couple days, not two weeks. There were other countries that needed their help, but the Freedom Fighters were stuck in Germany.

Niall and Louis were the most worn out. The blonde wanted to clean out every source of water he saw, but he failed to realize that fixing everything was taking a toll on his energy. He needed to make the huge water sources like rivers and lakes drinkable, not tiny streams.

On the other hand there was Louis, who kept wanting to put up more trees in every location they were in. He wanted forest everywhere to give off fresh air and provide fresh food.

The lads were currently in a deserted town, which Liam figured out was once called Berlin. He found the sign buried beneath piles of rubble.

Louis and Niall were slugging behind the others, trying their hardest not to fall over and collapse. All the old buildings had fallen on the ground, leaving behind piles of glass and concrete. The lads had to watch their steps in fear of sticking their foot in a pile of glass.

When they reached the middle of the town, Liam had everyone rest. He stomped on the earth and made the ground form seats, so they could all sit comfy.

Once seated, each lad pulled a snack out of their packs. Niall hunched over in his seat and allowed his eyes to droop shut.

Harry leaned back into the earth seat, pushing a tree root out of the way. He inhaled his apple that he packed and searched in his bag for another treat.

Liam and Zayn started to plan out exactly what they were going to do in Berlin, when Louis interrupted them asking, "Did we pass a library?"

"Why" Harry said with some curiosity, after seeing Liam and Zayn not responding. The two had gone back to hushed conversation.

"I want to see if there is a book about which animals are native in Germany."

Harry repeated the same question. "Why?"

"Because I want to make Berlin like it used to be. And that means creating animals that used to live here."

Niall's eyes snapped open after hearing Louis's last statement. "I thought Liam was making us rest today."

Liam quickly chimed in an agreement. "Louis, you are not supposed to use your powers today, so no library or making animals" he scolded, feeling more like a mother than a boyfriend.

"I know what book you should read, Louis" Zayn added with a smirk. "It's called the bible and it used to talk about a day of rest. And you my friend, are taking a day of it."

"I remember that book" Harry exclaimed, jumping up in excitement. "Gemma used to tell me about it. She said it was about this dude named Jesus, who wore ugly scandals and could like make water turn into wine."

Niall snorted in laughter, and Zayn couldn't help but join in. Harry of course would make what used to be a holy book sound hilarious. "I wonder if that Jesus person had powers like us. But making wine is kinda a useless power" Harry ranted, ignoring the muffled laughter from Zayn.

With fond eyes, Liam observed the others joking around. "So the moral of the story is Louis, you need to be like Jesus and rest" Liam joked, elbowing Zayn in the stomach to stop his laughing.

Louis huffed in annoyance, but made no move to disagree. Liam continued "I am going to try to fix up the buildings and clean up the ground. And Harry you are going to clean out the air. I want to actually be able to see the sun instead of the black smog."

"And what about me" Niall questioned, shooting his hand up like a child waiting to be picked on in class.

"You have the most important job babe" Zayn said, gently pushing down the blond's hand. "You have to sit here and look pretty." The blond pouted in response, and crossed his arms. "Liam and I want you to rest with Louis. Pretty please."

"Fine" Niall sighed "but it's only because I am actually tired."

Zayn, Liam, and Harry stood up from the makeshift chairs and set off to work. Harry took to the sky, collecting all the polluted air he could. He formed a giant black ball of smog and pollution and took it down to Zayn, where he would then burn it at the temperature of the sun. When the flames would settle the smog would be gone, burned away by the intense heat. This would carry on until Harry deemed the sky was clear enough.

Liam on the other hand was fixing all the buildings he could. He wanted to make Berlin livable again for the suriviors. With sweat dripping down his forehead, he lifted up one of the fallen buildings and mended it. The concrete would go back together and all the cracks would fill. When the building could successfully stand on its own, he would move onto the next one.

While the three boys were working, Louis and Niall were attempting to entertain themselves. After playing several rounds of thumb war, Louis convinced the blond to help him search for a library.

They had to wait for the perfect time to sneak away. The second the other three weren't looking, they darted off.

When they could no longer see or hear Harry, Liam, and Zayn, the two lads stopped sneaking and started to look around.

The signs to all the stores were covered in vines. As they attempted to read the signs, realization dawned on them that they couldn't speak or read German. "We didn't think our plan all the way through" Louis said to himself, studying the sign in front of him. To Louis and Niall it looked like a bunch of gibberish.

"What do we do now?" Niall questioned, turning his head to make sure the others were still preoccupied.

Louis shrugged. "I guess we keep walking around and peek into the buildings."

The two wandered around, going further and further into the city. Little did they know that with each step and turn they took, they were getting further away from their boyfriends.

When the sun began to set, Niall suggested they head back. But when they turned around, the lads realized how far they had traveled. Nothing was familiar to them.

Panic started to set in as the boys finally figured out how lost they were. As Louis paced around in a circle, his eyes came into contact with a book store or what he assumed to be one. The window had a faded picture of a book on it.

Jumping with triumph, he grabbed Niall's arm and dragged him into the store. "We found it" he explained, picking up a dusty novel. "Now let's split up and find ones about animals."

The blond nodded his head and walked towards the back of the store. The sound of books hitting the ground, was the only thing that could be heard. Each was searching for anything that had information about animals native to Germany.

They were so busy in their quest neither heard the store door open and close.

"You find anything yet" Louis called out, tossing a book behind his shoulder.

"Not yet, but I think I found that bible thing Harry was talking about."

Just as Louis was about to respond a hand went over his mouth. A muffled scream left the lad's mouth, as he tried to break out of the grip that was holding his arms against his body.

The hand left his mouth and then Louis's world went dark when a black bag was placed over his head.

"Niall" he screamed out the second the hand left his mouth.

Louis needed to calm himself down enough to transform into an animal. Taking a few deep breaths, his heart rate slowed down to a normal rate. He tried to choose a small animal to turn into, but since he was so spooked he went with the first thing that popped up in his mind. That being an elephant.

The black bag covering his vision easily ripped into tiny pieces, when he turned into the giant mammal. Picking an animal so big, Louis had no trouble getting a good look at his attackers.

It was a skinny group of scavengers, who were covered in dirt head to toe. They were so filthy Louis couldn't tell who was male or female.

Just as Louis was about to go charging down the bookstore looking for Niall, a wave of water came rushing towards the attackers. The water smacked into the scavengers, sending them all to the ground. Niall came walking down the aisle his arms both pointed outward, ready to strike again.

Louis tooted his elephant trunk and turned back into a human. "Do you speak English?" he asked the attackers, as they stared blankly at the lad. He saw fear in their eyes, which made him frown.

They mumbled in German, but Niall and Louis could make out the phrase Fearsome Five.

The two lads met gazes, before crouching down next to the group. Louis shook his head no, trying to communicate they were not the bad guys. "No Fearsome Five" he enunciated.

"We" Niall said, pointing to himself and Louis. "We Freedom Fighters."

One brave member of the scavengers touched the blond's chest and whispered "you no Fearsome Five."

Niall shook his head no. "We good."

The soaking wet group turned and chatted amongst themselves again. Louis believed they were discussing what to do next. The same one who spoke before stood up and with more confidence requested "follow us."

The two lads silently agreed to follow them. They wanted to find their group and help them if they could. Or at least try to try talk with them. Louis hoped someone could speak English at their camp.

"The others are going to kill us" Niall muttered to his boyfriend when they left the store.

"Probably" Louis agreed, not sounding worried at all.

They followed the scavengers down alleyways as the sky turned pitch black.

After walking for quite sometime they saw a light in the distance. "You ready" Louis whispered to Niall, grabbing his hand.

"As ready as I'll ever be."


	3. A New Hope

Liam finished his last building of the day and headed back to where he left Louis and Niall. While walking a wave of exhaustion hit him, and he knew the second he got back to his boyfriends he would fall asleep.

With each step he took, his eyelids seemed to get heavier and more droopy. In the distance he saw the campground, and used his last ounce of energy to get there.

"Hey Louis and Niall" he greeted, falling back in his seat that he made hours ago. The second his butt hit the seat, his eyes closed and he fell asleep. He never heard a response, but he was too sleepy to care.

His rest was short-lived though, as Liam was shaken awake by Harry. Blinking a few times, Liam gathered his surrounding and saw that is was now pitch black outside. Zayn had made a campfire and it appeared that some sort of soup was being cooked.

"Is dinner ready?" Liam yawned, rubbing his eyes.

Harry shook his head no. "I didn't wake you up because of dinner. Have you seen Niall and Louis? Do you know where they are?"

That statement woke Liam up, all his tiredness drained out of him. He shot up and saw Zayn in the distance, screaming the missing boys names. "How long have they been missing?" Liam asked, trying to remember if he actually saw them when he returned to camp.

"I think they left when we were busy fixing up Berlin. They probably went to find a bookstore, but they should have been back by now" Harry guessed, not really sure if it was true or not. "Zayn and I noticed they were gone when we got back, but we thought they would come back to camp before it got dark."

Zayn came walking towards them and asked "what should we do?"

"None of us have the power to see in the dark, so I guess we'll have to wait till morning to go searching for them" Liam answered with a frown.

"What" Zayn screamed, throwing his hands in the air angrily.

"I bet they lost track of time and got lost. Louis and Niall are probably camping out somewhere in the town, and they will probably find us in the morning" Liam explained, trying to calm Zayn down. "We have no idea what way they went, or how far they traveled. We can search a lot better when we have light."

Zayn stormed away, to calm himself down. His arms were covered in flames and the rest of his body was about to follow suit. He threw a fireball at the closest thing in front of him, that being a very old mailbox.

An angered scream left Zayn's mouth, as he shot flames up into the sky which went above the tallest building. When the smoke and heat cleared, Harry and Liam saw a collapsed Zayn on the ground.

They ran over to him and attempted to pick him up. Harry reached him first and went to put a hand on his forehead. A pained screech left Harry's mouth the second his hand touched his boyfriend's skin. "His skin is burning hot" Harry warned, holding his hurt hand against his chest.

Liam inspected Harry's hand, coming to the conclusion that he had third degree burns. "When we find Niall, I'll have him heal you."

They both turned to look at Zayn, not sure of what to do. "I guess we should let Zayn cool off before we try touching him" he advised, not wanting his other hand to get burnt.

The two boys decided to try and sleep, there super forgotten about. There was nothing else they could do. Harry fell asleep leaning against Liam's shoulder. Soon after, Liam closed his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.

The rays from the sun shone bright in the morning directly into the sleeping boy's eyes. Liam tried to block out the light, but then he remembered the events of last night. He sat up, forgetting there was a sleeping Harry on him. The slight movement was enough for Harry to roll off of Liam's shoulder, and face plant into the ground.

"Ouch" Harry muttered, spitting out a mouthful of dirt.

Liam gave an apologetic smile, and helped his boyfriend. They cautiously moved towards Zayn, not wanting a repeat of night before.

Harry crouched down right next to Zayn's ear and yelled "get up!"

The sleeping boy jumped, clearly startled by the yelling. His panicked expression was quickly replaced with annoyance, when he saw it was Harry that woke him up.

When everyone was fully awake, Liam suggested they start looking for the others. Harry and Zayn would fly over the city, Harry going north while Zayn went the opposite direction. Liam would look from the ground, hoping he could find them by using his earth bending powers. If Niall and Louis were close enough, he could pick up on their vibrations.

Liam walked east and would smack his foot on the ground every few 100 feet. No matter how far the vibrations would go, it would never pick up on the missing lads. Frustration filled Liam when he realized it was already late afternoon. Where were Niall and Louis?

He could hear faintly in the distance Harry's voice screaming Niall and Louis's name. Liam assumed Zayn had the same amount of luck as him and Harry.

Just as Liam was about to turn around he picked up movement a mile away. Without any hesitation he took off in the direction of where he believed his missing boyfriends were.

The closer he got the louder he yelled their names. When he was practically at the location, he stopped dead in his tracks. Fear overtook him when he picked up a lot more vibrations than just two people, from what he was guessing it was at least 100.

It was too late to turn back, his loud voice had already given him away. He felt himself getting surrounded, so Liam got ready to fight. A circle of people stood around Liam, each pointing a spear at him.

Liam assumed these were the people that had taken Niall and Louis. "I don't want to hurt you" he warned, twisting his foot on the ground.

"Komm mit uns" one of the people said.

A dumbfound expression spread across the boy's face. He had no idea what to do or say. They couldn't understand him, and Liam most certainly knew he couldn't talk to them.

The leader of the group, or who Liam assumed it to be, stepped forward and yelled a command to the group. In a swift movement all the spears were lowered, and a majority of the attackers went back into hiding.

Liam let some of the tension leave his body. The leader took a few slow steps closer to the lad. They pointed down an alley and indicated for Liam to follow. "Freedom Fighter" they said, pointing down the same alleyway.

Since there was no reason to argue or ask any questions, Liam decided to follow. From the rooftops he could see that his every move was being watched. The leader paid him no mind, and continued to walk forward.

In front of the path was the bottom half of what used to be a skyscraper. The hidden attackers came out from the shadows, and climbed into the broken building.

The one who spoke to Liam, waited at the entrance for the lad. They pointed to the door, telling Liam to go in.

With shaky legs, he walked through the door and saw the people going down an escalator to the basement area. He followed the group down the stairs, and was surprised to see a whole village down there.

Small fires and tents were littered around the whole camp. The leader grabbed Liam's arm and took him to the center of the camp where the biggest tent was. As he walked through the site, people in all directions stopped what they were doing and stared at Liam. Children pointed at him in amazement and awe, while the adults whispered to one another.

When they arrived at the tent, Liam was pushed inside. He turned to see the tent being zipped up, meaning he was in there alone.

Liam began cursing himself for not letting the others know of his position. They would never be able to find him. His thoughts were interrupted, when he heard his name called.

His head whipped around to see Niall and Louis run towards him. He threw his arms open and was soon in an embrace with his boyfriends.

"I was so worried" Liam whispered, nuzzling his head into Louis's neck.

"Sorry" Louis apologized. "It was my dumb idea to go look for a bookstore after telling me not too."

Niall agreed "Louis forced me to go."

"Did not. You went willfully Niall."

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't."

Liam quickly changed the subject to a more important matter. "Where are we? And who are these people?"

"Everything will be explained when Adalard returns" Niall answered.

Louis added "she is super cool by the way."

Before Liam could even think of a response, the tent unzipped and in walked a middle aged woman. She waved at Louis and Niall, and turned to face Liam. The woman, who Liam assumed was Adalard, lead them to the back of the tent.

In the back was a round table with chairs surrounding it. She sat down in one of the chairs and waited for the others to do the same.

Once seated Adalard introduced herself to Liam. "Hello" she greeted, shaking Liam's hand. "My name is Adalard, and I am the leader of the people here."

She recounted "your friends here were telling me about how you defeated the Fearsome Five. And we just couldn't believe it."

Niall chimed in "they thought we were the bad guys."

Adalard smiled, revealing her crooked teeth. "My group and I are overjoyed to hear that the Fearsome Five are dead. We used to live above ground in the buildings but we were attacked by the Fearsome Five's army. We lost many of our people so we moved our camp to more safer place, underground."

"We have been watching you guys since you arrived in Berlin. I told my group that you guys didn't look like the Fearsome Five. My memory may not be as good as it used to be, but I knew the Fearsome Five had 2 females on the team" she explained.

Liam sat in silence, trying to process all the new information being thrown at him. He had no idea he was being watching the whole time in Berlin. They needed to be more cautious. The lads were lucky this time that these people were nice, but they couldn't afford to make a mistake like this again.

"I need to find Harry and Zayn, and tell them where we are" Liam decided, before he would hear anything else from the old woman.

When he went to sit up, Adalard stopped him. "My group is already working on bringing them in. The only problem is they are up in the air, and my people can't fly. But we will try our best. Please just stay here."

Liam looked over at Niall and Louis to see their reaction. They seemed to trust her, so he decided to do the same. "Anyway where was I" she started again.

"I have a question" Louis spoke up. "How do you know English?"

"Good question. Before the world was destroyed, I was in high school learning German. My class hosted a German exchange program, where a German student would stay with us in America, and then we would travel to their country. It was supposed to help us with our German. I was in Germany staying with a family, and we were sightseeing and having a blast."

She paused and stared sadly at the ground, as the horrible memories flooded back in her head. Her eyes started to water, but she ignored it. With a sigh she continued, "then the Fearsome Five attacked. All the flights were grounded and the power went out around the world. I couldn't get home, or even try to contact my family."

Niall grabbed the woman's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sorry" he comforted, handing her a cloth to wipe away her tears.

"I never knew what happened to my parents or sisters. I assumed they died during the first wave of attacks, but I'll never know."

"What happened to the German family who you were staying with?" Louis asked, hoping they were still alive.

"We got separated" she revealed, closing her eyes to prevent more tears from forming. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. The past needs to stay the past."

No one argued with the older woman. Liam didn't want to bring out anymore demons from her past. She clearly had enough grief to last her a lifetime.

Adalard composed herself, wiping away the other tears that threatened to escape her eyes. "Now it is my turn to ask some questions."

Niall and Louis nodded their heads, both nervous for what she was going to ask.

"What are you doing in Germany?"

The three lads looked at each other to silently, to decide who had to answer the question. When it seemed that no one wanted to speak up, Liam answered "we are using our powers to fix the damage done by the Fearsome Five."

The rest of their discussion was Liam explaining to the woman how they defeated the evil team and how they plan to fix the world.

Amazement filled the woman when Liam described each of the lads powers to her. Her body filled with hope, something she hadn't felt in a long time.

"My group and I will help you in any way we can, while you are in Germany. I happen to know the location of the other clans around Germany, and I bet they would love to have their towns fixed" Adalard exclaimed, already picturing what the city would look like when it was put back together. She couldn't even remember what the old Berlin used to look like.

The meeting adjourned after that, with the woman on a mission to tell the other groups about the Freedom Fighters. She ran through her camp to the message boys tent, and gave them each a handwritten letter. The note told of all she had learned from the lads.

The messengers left the campsite minutes later, each going to one of the 7 villages. By the end of tomorrow night, the other clans will know of the Freedom Fighters' plans.

While Adalard was busy with her people, the three lads set out to find Harry and Zayn.

Niall suggested he make a giant water pillar that went higher than the buildings for Harry and Zayn to see. When Liam and Louis had no other ideas, they went with the blond's plan.

Using the water from the sky and ground, Niall made a wall of water shoot into the sky. His face scrunched up in concentration as he held up the water. The weight began to take its toll on Niall fairly quickly, as his legs started to wobble.

He pushed through his exhaustion, the blond would hold the water until Zayn and Harry found them. The burning sensation in his arms made some of the water start to break away from the bottom of the structure.

"Just hold out a little longer" Liam encouraged, sensing the others were near by.

Niall screamed out as he used his last ounce of energy to raise the water even higher, before falling to his knees. The water rained down on the three lads, their clothes and hair now sticking to their bodies.

"NIALL" a voice yelled from the sky. Up in the clouds they saw Harry come soaring towards them, with Zayn right on his tail.

"Where the hell have you guys been?" Zayn scolded when he landed on the ground. "Do you have any idea how worried I have been? First Niall and Louis go missing, and then you, Liam."

"Yea what he said" Harry agreed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Frowns were on both the lads' faces, until Niall went over and kissed both of their cheeks. Both were soon blushing, the anger draining out of them. "We have a really good excuse for why we didn't come back to camp."

"What is it?" Zayn questioned.

"We found another group" Louis answered. "And me and Niall had to prove to them we weren't the Fearsome Five."

"Tell me everything that happened" Zayn commanded, not wanting to meet this other group until he was caught up on everything that had happened.

Liam retold everything that had happened to him from getting surrounded to meeting Adalard. While the others listened to Liam, Niall worked his powers to heal Harry's injured hand.

When Liam finally finished Zayn and Harry were ready to meet the old woman and the other clans in Germany.

They wanted to unite the clans and have them all live peacefully in Berlin. Because once the lads are finished fixing the city it will be as good as new. The lads knew there is power in numbers.


	4. A New Threat

Arriving back at the underground campsite, the lads were given a tent to rest in during the night. In the morning the other clans would show up, and a huge meeting would take place. Liam knew they would need to prove that they meant no harm.

The beds were each single ones, separated by more than five feet. Liam used his earth ability to move the beds together, so they could all snuggle up together during the night. Louis claimed the middle bed and climbed under the covers, followed by Harry and Niall. Zayn and Liam slept on the opposite ends of the bed.

In the morning, Harry woke up to tension in the air. His powers allowed him to sense the emotion in air. He couldn't help, but grow worried when he heard whispering outside of his tent. Shifting in the bed, Harry quietly woke up the others trying to communicate that something was wrong.

Before Harry could explain his gut feeling, the tent flew open and a group of angry looking people stormed in. "Get up" one man screamed, grabbing Harry by the collar of his shirt.

The second the man's arm touched Harry, Zayn and Liam jumped out of bed. "Let go of him" Liam ordered, his tone showing that he was not messing around.

"I will not hesitate to hurt you if you threaten me and my lovers" Zayn told, making his arms light up with fire.

Niall stood behind Zayn and turned to man holding Harry. "I would suggest you let Harry go, if you don't want my friend here to burn you alive."

The other intruders in the room pulled out swords and knives, getting ready to fight to the death. The lads took that as their cue to power up. If it was a fight these people wanted, then the Freedom Fighters would give them one hell of a battle.

Harry pushed the man holding him back with the wind and hovered in the air. "You assholes ready to die?" he asked, his mind going red with anger. If this was the payment they received for fixing Germany, than he might reverse everything they had done.

"EVERYBODY STOP" Adalard commanded, entering the tent and getting in between the two angry groups. "Everybody put down your weapons and listen to me."

All eyes were on the older woman. Zayn watched with cautious eyes as the intruders lowered their weapons. When the weapons touched the ground, Zayn made the fire on his arms dissolve.

Adalard took the moment of silence to continue on with her speech. "I am sorry for the intrusion boys. My friends here are a little too trigger happy."

"Why did they barge in here and try to kill us?" Liam questioned, standing defensively in front of his boyfriends.

"Because they thought you were the Fearsome Five."

"Why would they think that?" Louis gasped, hating just hearing the evil group's name.

The older woman glanced over to the intruders with sad eyes. One of the men stepped forward and apologized. "I am sorry for drawing such quick conclusions about you guys, but after all we have been through you are lucky we didn't kill you in your sleep."

"That still doesn't explain why you tried to kill us?" Zayn stated, wrapping his arm around Louis.

"There was an attack on one of our camps. The group was run by a man named Ahren" the older woman explained, with a deep sadness in her voice. "He was a good friend and would always be the first person to arrive to every meeting."

Liam stared the group of people in front of him. He felt pity for them, they were scared. Scared of everything they could not understand. "How did they die?" the boy asked.

"We aren't sure. Aiden, who is one of my messengers, was the one who found the camp destroyed with bodies everywhere. He reported the deaths were of unnatural causes" the older woman described.

"But we are the only ones with powers left. The Fearsome Five are dead. I watched them die" Louis panicked, tears brimming up in his eyes.

"That is why we are all going together to investigate Ahren's camp. Maybe you lads can recognize if it is the work of the Fearsome Five or something else."

Adalard gave the lads some time to get dressed before they headed out to the village. It was about a two hour journey by car.

The Freedom Fighters rode in Adalard's car mostly, so she can keep an eye on them and make sure the other leaders didn't try and hurt them. She also wanted time alone to try to talk to them.

She drove in the center of the line of 10 cars. "When Aiden told of Ahren's death, the other leaders panicked. Many of them blamed you guys for his death even though, they hadn't met you guys. I told them they were not allowed to hurt you. So you know what the leaders did, they locked me in a closet and did the opposite of what I said. I promise you I tried to defend you guys. I believe you are not the Fearsome Five."

Liam looked over at the woman. "You are very kind Adalard, and I want to thank you for trying to defend us. You remind me of our friend back in America, his name is Simon. "

"You boys are too sweet to do anything so evil, you just need to prove it to the other groups" she said with a sad smile.

The rest of the car ride was filled with small talk. The anticipation was killing the lads, especially Louis. His worst nightmare could be coming true, that the Fearsome Five may be alive.

Niall and Zayn tried to calm Louis's nerves, reminding him again and again of how they defeated the villainous group.

Getting fed up with all the talk of the evil group Harry stated "if they are alive it just means we have to kill them again. We did it once how hard could it be the second time."

Louis's eyes watered up at the mere thought of fighting the group again. "Harry just shut up" Liam groaned, not wanting Louis to have a panic attack.

When they finally arrived at the campsite, the lads all jumped out of the car trying to escape the tense atmosphere of the car.

The first thing Niall noticed was how everything within the camp was dead. All the plants were shriveled up and lacking any color. It reminded him of his powers, except everything still had water in it.

The smell was what hit the blond next. He suppressed a gag when he got a whiff of the dead bodies. They were laid around the site, and each looked the exact same way. There faces were shrunken in and there skin was a gray color.

Niall ran forward to inspect the scene further. He disappeared from the eyesight of the other lads, which they were not pleased about.

Louis was forced to stay in the car with a blindfold over his eyes. Liam did not want his boyfriend to see the gruesome campsite.

Harry went after Niall to see what caught the blond's attention, while Zayn and Liam stayed with Adalard.

While looking for Niall, Harry couldn't believe what he was seeing. He searched his memory trying to remember if any of Fearsome Five had a power to cause such destruction.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Niall standing in the middle of dark circle on the ground. The closer Harry got the more he could make out what was on the ground. The circle was made of grass burned to a crisp and looked to be about 10 feet wide.

"What is this?" Harry asked stepping inside the circle.

"I don't know. Maybe it is how the people who did this got here" Niall theorized. "Do you think this is a portal?"

Harry stood there with a dumbfound expression on his face. He had no idea who or what could have done this.

Niall fell to his knees and picked up the pieces of grass around him. The plants turned to dust, the second they came into contact with Niall's hand.

Glancing behind him, Harry saw that him and the blond were no longer alone. Some of the other leaders had found the circle.

The leaders had the same expression which was on Harry's face. One said in a shaky voice that Adalard wanted to see them.

The village was in ruins, all the tents and cabins were scattered all over the ground. Adalard stood in front of what Niall assumed was the Ahren's hut.

Drawn in the dirt was a smiley face with heart eyes. Zayn and Liam wore grim expressions on their face. Neither of them knew who could have done this.

The attackers had a sick sense of humor. What kind of person would draw a smiley face after murdering a whole village Liam thought, kicking dirt over the drawing.

The lads were soon surrounded by the angry men who attacked them in their tent. "The second you guys came to Germany one of our towns is attacked" one man accused, pointing his gun at Liam.

"Are we really going to repeat what happened this morning?" Harry questioned, making the wind pick up speed.

"You guys did this."

"No we didn't. If you give me a second I can let you talk to Paul, the leader of the Freedom Fighters. He can vouch for us" Liam pleaded, shooting Harry a look to stop the wind.

"No more excuses. It is time you pay for your crimes for what you did to Ahren" the man yelled, firing his gun at Liam.

The bullet never hit the lad though. It was almost slow motion the way Adalard pushed Liam out of the way, and took the bullet for him.

She fell to the ground, clutching her bleeding stomach. Harry screamed in rage, sending a blast of wind in all directions, knocking everyone off their feet.

Niall darted over to the woman, holding her limp body in his arms. He took water out of one of the remaining trees and started to heal up her wound. "Please work" he muttered to himself. "Come on Adalard, don't you die on me."

The gunshot wound closed up, preventing anymore blood from pouring out. The color slowly returned to the woman's face, and Niall breathed a sigh of relief.

When Adalard opened her eyes, she turned and glared at the man who shot her. "You idiot" she demeaned, standing up. "I told you that these boys were not evil, so what do you do? You shot at them!"

"I wasn't aiming for you" the man defended, taking a step back from the angry woman.

"It doesn't matter who you were aiming at. You tried shooting an innocent person."

Adalard charged at the man, trying to tackle him to the ground. Zayn stepped in front of her, holding her back from attacking the man. "Let me go" she ordered, fighting the boy's grasp.

"I'll let you go when you calm down" Zayn answered, holding her tighter around her waist.

As all this commotion was going on, Louis sat quietly in the car. Curiosity got the best of him when he heard the sound of a gun being fired.

He opened the car door and immediately regretted the decision. Not only did he see dead people everyone, but he also saw the corpses of animals.

A movement to his left caught his attention, and he made his way towards it. He took a cautious step toward the bush and saw a gray bunny hiding in it. "Hi little guy" he greeted, not wanting to scare the animal away. "I promise, I won't hurt you."

The bunny hopped forward and smelt Louis's hand. It was slightly confused that Louis could speak rabbit, but nonetheless it trusted the boy. "Do you know what happened here?" he questioned, picking up the bunny and holding it against his chest.

"Yes" it answered with a shaky voice. "There was a great light and then 5 humans appeared. One of them took the life out of everything. My mother managed to hide me underground, but when she went to get my siblings she never returned."

Louis consoled the animal, and made his ways towards the lads. This information could be helpful in figuring out who attacked the group.

The pool of blood on the ground was the first thing that caught Louis's eyes when he finally found everyone.

"Is everyone okay?" he gasped, checking to make sure all of his boyfriends were unharmed. They all seemed perfectly fine, which calmed down Louis a little.

Zayn smiled fondly at Louis. "What are you doing out of the car?"

"I heard a gunshot, and I thought one of you guys were hurt."

The bunny moved a bit in the boy's arm, drawing the attention of Adalard. "What is in your hand Louis?"

"Oh, I found this little guy hiding" Louis answered. "And it told me about who attacked the village."

"You can speak rabbit?" the person who shot Adalard asked, trying suppress laughter. He gave the other group members a look a skepticism.

To prove he could indeed speak to animals, Louis transformed into a bunny. The smirk wiped off the man's face, when he saw the boy hop around as a bunny.

When Louis turned back into a human, he was bombarded with questions of what the rabbit had said. He retold everything the bunny had mentioned about the attack. He told of how the animal saw 5 people come out of a hole in the sky which Niall concluded was the dark circle he and Harry found.

The bunny could not say which gender the people were, since it is only an animal. It also could not identity the powers they had. But it had at least answered the question that there were other people out there like the Freedom Fighters.

After the whole village was searched for more answers, Adalard concluded they head back home. It was growing dark and Adalard feared the people who did this would come back.

Louis decided to take the bunny back with them to Adalard's camp. The other group leaders went back to their own villages. Before they left, each leader apologized to the Freedom Fighters for their behaviour.

When the lads and Adalard arrived back at her camp, they each went in separate directions. Liam went to call Simon and report the new threat. Niall went with the older woman to make sure she was fully healed. Louis set out to build a tiny home for the bunny, which he was naming Fluffy. And Harry and Zayn decided to catch up on some sleep.


	5. The Unexpected Visit

The dial tone was what alerted Simon that Liam had hung up the phone. The man dropped the phone to the ground, and stared aimlessly at the wall. He couldn't wrap his mind around what he had heard.

Was the evil super villain team back or was this a new threat? He didn't want either question answered.

Since the Freedom Fighters had left, Simon and his team had been tracking down Fearsome Five armies and destroying them. He wanted to wipe all traces of the evil group from the face of the planet.

But recently he had noticed that all the armies seemed to have vanish. At first he couldn't figure out why, but now he knew. Someone was recruiting them and forming a new army.

Letting out a long sigh, Simon picked the phone off the ground and put it back on the charger. He needed to form a new plan. His team would no longer look for any of Fearsome Five fighters, but instead search for the new threat of people with powers.

Just as he was about to sit down at his desk, Simon heard a knock on his door. He quickly walked over and threw the door open.

"Hey" Paul greeted, stepping inside the office. "How are the lads doing? I heard you just got off the phone with them."

Simon stared at his friend sadly. "They shared some very grim news with me."

"What is it?"

"Liam says there is a new threat. He said there are other people out in the world with superpowers."

"What" Paul shrieked, his eyes growing wide in panic. Before his fear could grow any worst, Simon pulled his friend in for a hug.

"I promise we will take care of this new group before they hurt anyone else" Simon said, reassuring his friend.

He closed the door and checked the make sure no one else was around. The leader didn't like news spreading of the attack on the town in Germany.

Simon took this time alone together to recap everything Liam had said on the phone to him. He made sure to leave out no details, because Paul was his right hand man.

When Simon finished speaking, the two friends sat in silence. Paul was trying to process all the new information, without crying. Just when he saw a glimmer of hope of a world without enemies, reality set in.

Just as Paul was about to speak, one of Simon's soldiers barged into the room. "Sir, we have a breach in one of the sectors. A civilian just walked into camp and he wants to speak to you."

"Does he have any weapons? Did he come alone?" Simon questioned, shooting his friend a worried expression.

"He has no weapons and appears to be alone" the soldier reported. "Should I bring him in?"

A nod of approval was given to the young soldier, and he went to retrieve the civilian.

Paul decided to stay, and see who broke into camp and why he requested to speak to Simon. The two men set up a table and three chairs, so their session with the stranger could be more intimate. They set up the room like an old interrogation room.

The two were sat in there chairs conversing, when a tall skinny boy walked into the room. He sat down across from Simon and Paul and smirked at them, pushing his glasses back up to the top of his nose.

"What brings you to our base?" Simon asked, as the boy was handcuffed to the table.

"That shall be answered in due time" the boy responded, cockily. He turned his head to Paul and questioned "who are you?"

"If you won't answer Simon's question, then I won't answer yours" Paul retorted, leaning back in his chair.

"Touche."

"Can you tell us your name and where you came from?" Simon said, trying to get the interrogation back on track.

At first the boy sat in silence, almost debating if he should answer the question. "My name is Evan and where I came from isn't important. But I believe you already know the answer to where I last came from."

"What do you mean?" Simon asked, beginning to get pissed off at Evan's nonchalant behaviour.

"Did you not just get off the phone with your friend from the Freedom Fighters? I could have sworn he told you he was in Germany, investigating the destruction of a village."

Simon's head snapped to look at Paul. Fear crept into stomach as his mind raced to all the possible outcomes that could happen in this room. "Were you one of the people that attacked the village?"

Evan shrugged. "Kinda. I sadly am not blessed with the gift of abilities, but that doesn't stop me from using weapons against people. Those dumb villagers underestimated my skill with a gun."

"Why are you here?" Simon growled, edging his hand closer to his gun which sat buckled right above his knee.

The boy didn't answer, his eyes turned to the window almost like he expecting someone to show up.

Simon stood up abruptly, grabbing his friend by the shoulder. He pushed him out of the room and whispered "get down to the bunker and hide. I fear things are about to go south."

Paul had no time to react, as he was pushed out of the room. Everything happened so fast that the only thing he could think to say was "come with me, Simon". He grabbed Simon's hand, hopping this would convince him.

With a sad smile Simon shook his head no and, broke away from Paul's grip. He slammed the door shut, making sure to lock it. Paul banged against the door, pleading for his friend to open it. After knocking for what seemed like forever, he knew his attempts were futile.

He left the office and went to find the generals on duty. They needed to be informed of a potential attack on the camp. The plan of hiding down in the bunker was long forgotten. ,

"Do you think that making your friend hide will save him?" Evan taunted, a smirk forming on his face. "A simple bunker will be no match against my friends."

A slap echoed through the room as Simon's hand collided with the boy's cheek. "I would shut your mouth boy. I am the one with the gun here, not you."

Simon cocked his gun back and aimed it at Evan's head. "Do you have anything else smart to say?"

Evan pushed up his glasses and again and turned to the window. "Do you happen to know the time?" the boy asked, batting his eyelashes innocently.

"1:30".

The answer seemed to please Evan, since he leaned back in the chair and put his feet on the table.

"Since you seem to be at my mercy, I suggest you start answering my questions" Simon threatened, clicking the safey off of the gun.

Evan didn't react to the threat. "I'm not scared of you, old man."

Simon saw red and smacked the butt of the gun against Evan's head. "Still not scared?"

"You'll pay for that."

Simon raised the gun up again, getting ready to hit the boy again, when he heard his door being unlocked. He dropped the gun to his side, thinking of who could possibly have access to his office. The only person on this entire base who had all the keys were Paul, but he wouldn't be stupid enough to come back.

The door to the office swung open, and Paul came running in holding a pair of keys.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Simon gasped, seeing his friend stand in the doorway.

"I just couldn't stay away from you" Paul answered, staring strangely at his man. It was almost like the person standing in front of him was a stranger.

Simon didn't have time to think to deeply on Paul's strange behavior, his thoughts went straight to the searing pain in his stomach. His eyes glanced down to see a knife protruding from his chest. Paul pushed the knife in further, and watched in delight at Simon's betrayed expression.

The man's ears started to ring, and his vision became blurry. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his hand against his chest. The gun fell to the ground, skidding away from Simon. "Why?" he coughed out, tasting blood in his mouth.

Paul smiled darkly, walking over to the injured man. "Where are the handcuff keys, Simon?" he said, ignoring his friend's question. This whole situation seemed to be like a game to Paul.

Simon felt hands in his pocket, but he couldn't do anything to stop it. Any movement sent a wave of pain through his body.

"Found them" Paul proclaimed, pulling the tiny set of keys from Simon's right pocket.

Swinging the keys on his finger, the man walked over to Evan.

The handcuffs fell from the boy's red wrists. "Took you long enough, girl" he muttered, rubbing his wrists.

Right before Simon's eyes, he saw the skin on Paul begin to change. His body type changed going from a fairly large man to an african american girl, who appeared to be around the same age of Evan. She was smaller than Evan and barely went past his shoulder.

She inspected the boy's wrist, and rolled her eyes at his dramatic behaviour.

"Where is Paul?" Simon questioned, trying to sit up to grab his gun.

The girl moved her foot to avoid stepping in the pool of blood forming. "He is alive for now."

Evan and the girl turned to converse, both taking their attention off of the dying man. They assumed he was too hurt to attack them. Simon took those moments to reach for his gun. He picked it up and pointed it at the shapeshifter.

As he went to pull the trigger a voice from the doorway commanded "miss."

Simon's arms seemed to have a mind of their own, as his arm holding the gun pointed to the wall instead of the girl. The gun went off, but it wasn't even close to hitting the intended target. He never missed shots, especially by that much.

"Take your gun, and put it against your head" the same voice ordered, finally stepping into the room. The figure was wearing a black hood over their head in order to hide their face.

Going against his own free will, Simon rested his gun against the side of his head.

The hooded figure walked over to their friends, saying "get ready for phase 2 of the plan."

The girl nodded her head and stared at Simon. Her skin and height started to change. The skin went from brown to white and she went from feminine features to masculine ones. Her short black hair, turned light brown in almost a blink of an eye. When her transformation was complete, she was a spitting image of Simon.

"Let's go round up Simon's soldiers for a big meeting" the shapeshifter taunted, sounding exactly like Simon.

"What are you going to do to them?" Simon screamed in frustration.

Evan tisked at the injured man. "You seem pretty smart. I think you can use your tiny brain and figure out what we are going to do."

The fake Simon and Evan headed out of the room together, much to Simon's dismay.

"Me and you are going to have a chat now" the mysterious person said, when their teammates left the room.

"I won't tell you anything" Simon barked back, pulling the knife out of his gut. He lunged at the person, pulling down their hood in the process.

He went to plunge the knife into their stomach, when they yelled "freeze."

Simon's whole body went rigid, and no matter how hard he tried to move, nothing in his body seemed to work.

While frozen the man took this time to see what the enemy looked like. He first took notice of the eye patch covering the attacker's left eye. Their skin color was a lot darker than the shapeshifter. Unlike the girl's hair which was brushed back and well taken care of, his was a wild mop on his head that seemed to go in hundreds of different directions.

"You think you would have learned the first time that you cannot hurt me. You are at my mercy, Simon" the man taunted, kicking Simon right in his stab wound. "To prove my point, I want you to cut off your left thumb with the knife in your hand."

Simon shook his head no, but to his horror his left hand took the knife and went towards his thumb. No matter how much he pleaded or cried, he couldn't stop stop himself from stabbing at his thumb. For the next few moments all the man could feel was pain. The knife sawed through the bones in his thumb, and each cut was more agonizing than the last.

He didn't realize he was screaming, until he felt how raw his throat was. Tears freely flowed down his face when his thumb bounced onto the cold ground.

"That was awesome" the boy exclaimed, picking up the thumb. "I give you a thumbs up" he joked, using Simon's own finger to make a thumbs up sign.

"You're sick" Simon cried, averting his gaze from his bloody hand.

"Thank you. Now let's get back to the reason why I am here with you. Do you wish to show any other resistance, because you have nine other fingers just waiting to get cut off?"

The world seemed to get darker to Simon as the blood loss took its toll on the man. His head was swimming from dizziness and he couldn't help, but to start shaking.

"Shit, don't die on me old man" the boy cursed. "Rebecca get in here" he yelled out into the hallway.

A girl with light brown hair going past her butt rushed into the room, clutching a sketch pad against her chest. Her skin was almost as pale as Simon's who had lost a substantial amount of blood. "Make him stop dying" the boy said, pointing at the bloody mess in front of him.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "I am not sure what you want me to do, Peter. It's not like I have the power to get rid of stab wounds."

She opened her book and started sketching a drawing. "But I can draw some bandages to stop the bleeding."

When her pencil stopped moving, she ripped off the page with the picture of bandages. She reached into the piece of paper and pulled out her drawing. When Simon witnessed a girl pull actual bandages from paper he thought he was hallucinating.

She quickly wrapped the bandages around the bleeding man's wounds. "This should help keep him alive for a little longer."

The drawing was put in a folder, connected to the sketchbook and Simon caught a glimpse of hundreds of other pictures she must have drew.

"Stand up" Peter commanded, when he saw the man regain a little color back into his skin. "I have some questions you need to answer before you die."

With shaky legs, Simon stood up and went to the chair Peter pointed too. Peter pushed the table in front of Simon and pulled out a map of the United States. "I need you to tell me where you fought the Fearsome Five and where you buried the bodies."

"Why do you want to know?" Simon asked, feeling completely powerless.

"Did I say you can ask any questions?" Peter barked, slamming Simon's head down on the table. The impact broke the man's front teeth, forcing him to cry out in pain. "Let me ask again in a language you can understand, point at the map and tell me where you buried the Fearsome Five."

Simon's hand went to the state of Florida and he pointed at Miami. "Does your friend Paul know where all the bodies are buried?"

He nodded his head yes, hating himself for giving these people information.

Clapping his hands together excitedly, Peter stood up. "Looks like we are going to portal Florida."

Peter rolled up the map and turned to Rebecca. "Tell Natalie to get the portal ready and have Trish find Paul so we can get out of this hellhole." The girl nodded her head, and backed out of the room.

Standing in the doorway, Peter couldn't leave without saying goodbye to the dying man. "Well it's been fun getting to know you. Your little soldiers will be joining you soon, so when you hear their screams of agony don't too concerned. Have fun dying or whatever alone." The door slammed shut, leaving Simon alone.

As the man took his last breaths, he heard his camp erupt in screams. Screams of people dying, and fighting for their lives.

Simon sent a silent prayer to keep Paul safe, but he knew it would never be answered. He finally closed his eyes and stopped fighting the thing he had been running from for all these years, death. He welcomed the cold feeling, wanting to escape all the pain.

His last thoughts were of his dear friend Paul before his chest stopped rising up and down. And his world finally went black.


	6. A Bad Feeling

All Liam felt was panic. This was the fifth time he had attempted to call Simon today and no one was picking up the phone. He kept hitting the recall button hopping, more like praying Simon was playing a joke on him. The familiar sound of ringing went on and went, till the boy got discouraged and hung up.

Being so observed in his task, Liam didn't notice Harry enter the tent. He jumped slightly when Harry's hand grabbed his shoulder. "I could sense your panic from across the camp. What's wrong, Liam?"

"I can't get ahold of Simon. He hasn't responded to my calls in the past three days" Liam explained, hitting the recall button once more.

Harry took Liam's hands in his own, trying to stop them from shaking. He took the phone and put it back on the charger. "I am sure everything is fine" Harry reassured, guiding Liam to the bed. "You need to sleep, it looks like you haven't gotten any in awhile. I bet when you wake up Simon will be telling you a funny story on how Paul misplaced the phone."

When his body hit the bed, exhaustion took over Liam. "I bet you're right" Liam muttered, his eyes starting to close.

Quiet snores left the sleeping boy's mouth after a couple minutes. Harry watched over Liam, he looked so peaceful when he slept. The worry lines disappeared and he seemed so calm, unlike his usual worry some self.

Harry left the tent, and set out to find the others. As he walked around the camp, he stopped dead in his tracks. Something felt off.

His mind wandered off, as he tried to think of what could possibly be wrong. The air around seemed different. The wind abruptly stopped, and everything went quiet.

All he could hear was a ringing, almost like a telephone. He snapped his head back to his tent, and realized the ringing was coming from there.

Like the wind, he darted to the tent. He answered the phone with a shaky "hello."

No response came and Harry could have sworn the other person had hung up, but he heard slight breathing.

Liam sat up in bed, having been woken up by the phone. "Is it Simon?" he questioned. Harry didn't respond, which worried the boy. He took the phone from Harry, and put the phone on speaker.

"Simon is that you? Why haven't you returned my phone calls?" Liam drilled, ignoring Harry's expression of uneasiness.

"Hello Liam" Simon finally responded. "Sorry I haven't returned your calls I have been....busy."

The uneasy feeling crept back into Harry. The voice sounded like Simon, but at the same time it didn't feel like him. Something about Simon was off and Harry couldn't put his finger on what.

"How is Germany? Did you find any useful clues in the town about who the attackers are?"

"I already told you everything I know" Liam answered, glancing over at his boyfriend.

Harry leaned close to Liam and warned "I have a bad feeling about this."

There was a pause as Liam tried to think of something to say to find out if this was really Simon. "Hey Simon, how is Roberts feeling? I know last time we talked he was sick."

Simon answered quickly. "He is feeling a lot better. Tomorrow he will released from the health clinic.

A loud gasp left Liam's mouth. "Who are you, and the what hell did you do to Simon?" he fumed, making the ground shake slightly.

Laughing could be heard on the other end of the phone. The voice suddenly went from Simon's to a girl's. "I knew you would figure it out, but I am disappointed it happened so fast."

She continued "I know you are Liam, but who is the other boy with you?"

"I'm not telling you shit" Liam roared, taking Harry's hand for support.

"Well then this is going to be a one-sided conversation."

Liam punched a hole in the bed in anger. "I swear if you hurt Simon or Paul, I will hunt you down and kill you."

The girl laughed again, but this time both boys heard at least three other people joining in on the laughter. "I guess you should start hunting then. Keep the phone charged, we will be calling again soon."

The line went dead and Liam fell off the bed screaming. He punched the ground causing a mini earthquake in the camp. With each hit the ground shook more and more.

If the boy didn't calm down the whole camp would be destroyed. "Liam please calm down" Harry pleaded, kneeling in front of his boyfriend. "If you don't stop the whole camp will be under debris soon."

The pleading didn't seem to work so Harry went to plan b. He pulled Liam in for a hug and gently kissed his forehead.

The earth stopped moving, as Liam finally let his tears fall. He screamed in agony against Harry's chest, getting out his frustration and helplessness.

Harry soothed his boyfriend, rubbing his back and running his hand through Liam's hair.

Footsteps approached the tent, but Harry already knew who was coming.

Louis, Niall, and Zayn ran into the tent each with the same scared expression. "What the hell happened?" Zayn whispered, taking in the state of Liam.

Harry mouthed later to his boyfriend's, and went back to comforting Liam. The others joined in, engulfing the boy in one huge hug.

Once Liam finally calmed down, he broke away from the embrace. "We need to go back to Simon's base right now."

He gave no further explanation, and stormed out of the tent. "Come back" Harry called out, chasing after the boy.

"I am so confused" Niall stated, unsure of what to do. "Should we tell Adalard we are heading back to America?"

The answer the blond received was a simple shrug from Zayn. "I say we wait for Liam to cool down, and actually explain what happened. Let's not jump to conclusions."

The phone on the charger started ringing, catching the attention of the three boys. Louis picked it up, greeting "hey Simon it's Louis. I am not sure where Liam is, he ran away looking pretty upset."

"Louis it's me, Caroline."

"Oh my god Caroline. How are you? I miss you so much" Louis gushed, looking excitedly at the others.

As Louis talked on the phone, Niall and Zayn turned to converse with themselves. "How did Caroline get the number to our phone? The only person who knows it is Simon" Zayn whispered, making sure Louis didn't hear him.

"Maybe she is using Simon's phone."

"That can't be possible, isn't she stationed at the base in England?"

"Then who is Louis talking too?" Niall asked, staring suspiciously at the phone.

Louis was so excited to talk to his old mentor that he ignored his gut feeling of something not being right. It wasn't till she brought up his parents that he grew cautious.

"Have you talked to your parents recently" she asked innocently, almost like she forgot their horrible deaths.

"Did you forget they died at the hands of the Fearsome Five?"

"Hang up the phone" Liam yelled from the entrance of the tent, when he saw Louis.

The lad jumped, dropping the phone in his hand. The call went silent as it smacked the ground, but then the screaming started. The boys listened closely, and could make out the screams were coming Paul.

Before he could even realize what he was doing, Harry put the phone on speaker. "Hey Liam do you hear Paul?" the female voice from before said, taunting him.

Paul yelled in agony as the lads could only imagine what was happening to him. "Remember you said you would hunt us down if we hurt him. Well you better find us soon, because I fear he may not have much time left. Sadly we can't heal people like Niall."

Another scream erupted from the phone, this one sounding much more agonizing.

"I'm going to kill every last one of you" Liam promised the mysterious person.

"Good luck."


	7. Lunch Date

The lads decided to head off to America to rescue Paul and Simon, once they got off the phone with impersonator. No way would they let Paul be tortured, or worse killed. Adalard instantly jumped on the chance to accompany the boys on their mission. She had grown quite fond of them, and wouldn't let them walk into trouble by themselves.

She even somehow convinced the other groups around Germany to join her and the Freedom Fighters on their quest to America. She was surprised they all said, but she had a hunch it had something to do with avenging the fallen town and escaping from the country. As much as Adalard and the others loved Germany, they were tired of living in the same spot for so many years.

The camp was busy with people packing up their things, and gathering supplies and weapons. The next day they would travel to the ocean, and Liam would form a boat big enough to fit everybody. Niall would use the waves to push them along to America. If all went well, they would be in America in the next couple of days. Adalard just needed to make sure there would be enough food to feed everybody for more than a week. She had people scavenging Germany for any sources of food.

As the different camps got ready, Zayn decided to take the lads out for their final day in Germany. He asked Adalard where the best romantic places in the city were, and she gladly pointed him to a small lake by a meadow. She told him it was the only spots that survived the attacks.

All the lads agreed to go except Liam, who was still stressing about Simon. He had let the phone calls go to his head. Zayn knew this little day trip would help Liam clear his mind.

It was Niall who made Liam cave into going. He batted his big blue eyes, until Liam finally said yes.

Zayn repeated the directions Adalard gave him to himself, as he lead the others to the lake. They walked for less than hour, just enjoying being in each other's company.

"Last time we did something like this was right after our fight with the Fearsome Five" Louis reminisced, thinking of their first date.

Niall nodded his head "we should try doing this more often, instead of just right before a fight or after it."

"Maybe we should do a date night like every week" Harry suggested, coming in between Niall and Louis. He grabbed each of their hands and started swinging them around. "I missed just getting to spend time with you guys, without fixing problems caused by the Fearsome Five."

The others hummed in agreement.

"We're here" Zayn announced, as he ran up the hill. The lads followed and couldn't help, but stare at the beautiful view in front of them. It was almost like the war never happened in this place.

The woods and river were full of life. Fish darted around in the clear blue water, and birds chirped from atop of the trees. The grass was a lively green color and the trees were tall and full of leaves.

Harry threw off his shirt, and kicked off his shoes. "Who wants to go for a swim?" he laughed, diving head first into the water.

He emerged a couple seconds later, shaking around his soaking wet hair. Niall quickly joined him, the blond would never turn away an opportunity to swim.

The water was freezing cold, but Niall didn't mind. He lunged at Harry's feet and began tickling the boy.

Harry shrieked, kicking his feet out wildly. "Niall if you don't stop.."

"You'll what" Niall interrupted, coming to the surface. "You are in my territory now, Styles."

Louis took this time as the two were distracted to make his move. He turned into a giant whale and cannonballed into the water. A huge 20 foot wave formed, and smacked the unsuspecting lads square in the face.

The waves were so high they even soaked Liam and Zayn, who were still by the edge of the water.

Liam took that as his cue to join his boyfriends, jumping head first into the cold lake. He splashed Louis in the face, cursing his boyfriend for getting him wet.

The four looked over to see Zayn still at the edge of the water. "Come on in Zayn, the water may be cold at first, but you'll get used to it" Niall encouraged, waving his hand for Zayn to come forward.

"I can't swim" Zayn confessed, looking down at the water sadly.

"Hey don't be embarrassed" Liam said, getting out of the lake. "If you want we can swim in the shallow end, and teach you how to swim."

"Really" Zayn exclaimed, staring at this boyfriend.

"Yes, now get your ass in the water before I push you in."

Reluctantly, Zayn stepped into the lake. He went up to his waist, before he stopped.

The blond swam up to the boy. "Take my hand, Zayn." The lad did as he was told and gave Niall his hand. "Do you trust me?" the blond asked.

"Of course I do."

"Good, cause here we go." Before Zayn could say anything else his whole body was underwater. He was sinking to the bottom of the lake. As he started to panic, he realized he was still clutching Niall's hand.

The blond giggled at him, causing little bubbles to leave his mouth. "You can breathe underwater, so stop trying to hold your breath" Niall stated, taking in a big breath of water.

Zayn mustered up his courage, and trusted his boyfriend. He breathed in the water and came to the realization that he wasn't drowning.

When he finally calmed down, the boy took in his surroundings. He pulled Niall down to the sandy bottom of the lake. The kelp stuck out of the ground, tickling his feet. The rocks were covered in green moss, and Zayn loved the way the sun reflected in the water. The world was put in a new perspective in the water.

The fish caught his eyes next. The rainbow scales on them and the way they swimmed so fast, couldn't help but amaze Zayn. This was the furthest he had ever gone exploring in the water. He couldn't believe how much he had missed out on.

Harry floated down next to him, having a bubble of air surrounding him and Liam's head.

Harry disappeared in the kept but came up a few seconds later holding a seashell. He gave it to Zayn, who took it with a happy smile. Zayn couldn't get over all the amazing things the lake had to offer.

A squeeze on his hand made Zayn snap his head over to the blond. Niall was pointing and something in the distance. Whatever it was it was coming towards them at full speed.

When it was about 20 feet away Zayn saw it was a shark. As he opened his mouth to scream, the blond threw his head back in laughter. "It's Louis" Niall snorted, dragging Zayn towards the fish.

They grabbed onto the shark's fin and allowed the fish to drag them around the lake. Harry and Liam swam behind, trying their hardest to keep up.

From the floor of the lake, they found old cell phones, coins, and even a car. It was rusty and had coral all over it, but Harry couldn't help but hop into the driver's seat and pretend to drive.

The others watched Harry with fond eyes, finding him to be adorable. "Let's go back to the surface" Liam suggested, wanting to teach Zayn how to swim.

They swam towards the shallow end, Louis turning back into his human form when he reached the surface.

"That was so much fun" Louis gushed, wiping the water off of his head. "I can see why you love the water so much, Niall."

Niall smiled "it calms me."

"How about we teach Zayn how to swim, so he doesn't have to hold your hand the whole time Niall" Liam suggested, splashing the water with his hand.

"But I like holding Zayn's hand" Niall pouted, making sure to stick out his bottom lip.

"And I like holding yours, but I really do want to learn how to swim by myself" Zayn replied, kissing the blond on the hand then cheek.

A bright red blush formed on Niall's cheek, as he slid his head under the water to hide it.

"I love you guys" Harry blurted out, not being able to control himself. "I just want to say that you make me really happy and stuff. "

"Aww look Harry has feelings" Louis joked, playfully splashing the boy.

"I've always had feelings, I just don't show them well sometimes" Harry replied, glaring at Louis. "Water war" Harry screamed, changing topics. He couldn't let the boys know he was getting soft.

With his wind powers he pushed the water up forming a wave. It crashed down on the four lads while Harry dove under the water.

Niall took the opportunity to splash Liam and Louis again, making the water hit them in every direction. Submerging himself, he set his blue eyes after Harry. The blond laid perfectly still in the water, trying to sense when his boyfriend went.

There was a slight vibration to the left of him, so Niall took off in that direction. The water pushed him along making him faster than every fish in the lake.

While Niall and Harry had their fun, Liam and Louis set out to teach Zayn how to swim. They had Zayn lay on his back and began showing him how to float.

At first Zayn was scared to lay his body perfectly straight in the water, he thought he was going to drown. "Don't bend your back" Liam scolded, placing his hand on his boyfriend's back. "Keep straight. I promise me and Louis won't let you drown."

Reluctantly, Zayn straightened up and much to his surprise he was floating. He got a little ahead of himself and began kicking his legs. After swallowing a mouth full of water, Zayn stood up.

"Next time you kick your legs, you may want to try shutting your mouth" Louis joked when seeing Zayn have a cough attack.

The three lads heard a loud scream, then saw Harry brake the surface of the water getting thrown 20 feet in the air. Before he smacked the lake, he caught himself using his powers to make him float. "Niall, you could have killed me" Harry scolded, shooting the blond a glare.

"But I didn't" the blond assured, making the water throw Harry in the air again.

While Harry fell towards the water again, Niall turned his attention to Zayn. "How are your swimming lessons going?" he asked, throwing Harry back in the air. The water pushed him up high, and would fall back towards the lake. Just when the curly haired lad would regain himself, he would be hit with another spring of water.

"I can float, still trying to learn how to kick" Zayn answered, watching Harry get thrown by the water again. He stifled a laugh, not wanting to encourage Niall's behaviour.

Louis though couldn't contain himself though, and began cracking up. He pointed to Harry and mocked him. "This is the best moment of my life" he proclaimed, watching Harry get helplessly tossed by the water.

"Enough Niall" Liam commanded. "If you don't stop soon, he is going to be sick."

"Fine" Niall sighed, letting the water crash back into the lake.

Harry floated down towards the others slowly, expecting a surge of water to hit him again. He locked eyes with the blond and threatened "it may not be today or tomorrow, but I will get my revenge on you."

"Whatever you say" Niall responded, rolling his eyes.

The lads spent a little more time in the water, before finally getting out. Much to their dismay, none of them brought any towels to dry off with.

Niall used his water ability and took the water off of the boys, instantly drying them. "Should we have lunch?" Liam suggested after hearing his stomach growl.

The others hummed in agreement, each helping in the task of making lunch. Zayn started a fire, while Louis summoned an animal to eat. Louis would take no part in killing the animal or eating it, he made that Liam's job.

A wild hog appeared in front of Louis, and took off running towards the woods. Liam stepped in front of the animal and impaled ot through the heart with an earthy spike. The hog only squealed for a second, before it died.

Harry lifted up the dead hog, not caring of the blood dripping all over him, he would clean himself in the lake. He put the pig over the fire and began roasting it.

"Do you guys want some fish to go with the hog?" Niall asked, stepping into the water.

"I've never had fish before" Harry answered honestly. "There were no fish alive anymore in the areas I lived in."

Niall soon learned none of his boyfriends have ever eaten fish. He quickly dove out in the water and caught 5 big fish.

The smell of the meats cooking over the fire, soon had the lads drooling over it. When everything finished cooking the lads dug right in. Even Louis couldn't resist the urge to try some fish. To his discovery, he found out he loved fish and wanted to eat it everyday for the rest of his life.They ate in a comfortable silence, enjoying being in each other's company.

The moment was perfect, almost too perfect. None of them were bringing up America, or the new villains. They were in a fantasy world, and they did not want to go back to reality.

When the meal was finished, Niall jumped back into the water, making sure to splash Harry. "I swear Niall really wants me to kill him" the curly haired boy commented, debating on whether or not he should jump in after the blond.

As Harry stood at the edge of the water, Louis took the opportunity to push the boy in. Harry shrieked, falling head first into the lake. His head broke the surface and his spit out a mouthful of water. "Alright Louis, looks like I have to kill you now too".

"Good luck catching me then" Louis mocked, turning into a speedy fish. He zoomed past Harry, going deep in the lake.

Looking up at the sky, Liam saw the sun was beginning to set. Him and the lads needed to get back to camp soon if they wanted to get ready for their journey. They needed as much rest as they could get.

Zayn seemed to read Liam's mind, and grabbed everyone's discarded clothes. The two lads tied their shoes and pulled their shirts back on.

Harry took notice of the other two, and slowly climbed out of the water. "Is it time to leave?" he asked sadly, glancing back at the lake.

"Yes, we need to head back to reality" Liam answered, throwing Harry his clothes.

Louis and Niall were the tough ones to get out of the water, since neither of them needed to come up for air.

Pacing around the edge of the lake, Liam tried thinking of ways to get their attention. His thoughts were cut off when Louis broke the surface. "How come you guys aren't swimming" he pouted, looking at the others.

"It's time to go. Can you please get Niall?"

As Louis swam down to the blond, tears entered his eyes. The new mission struck fear in the boy's heart. The last time they fought people with powers, they nearly died. The world was just starting to become less dark to Louis. Now the people he loves are in jeopardy again.

He was scared of what awaited them in America. He wanted Simon and Paul to be alive. He prayed when they arrived at camp Caroline would pull him in a big hug, and tell him everything is fine. But he knew the world was cruel, and happiness was short lived.

Louis returned to the surface a couple seconds later with a disappointed looking Niall.

Once everyone was dressed, they made their way back to Adalard's camp. The walk back was silent, but not comforting like lunch. This silence was filled with anticipation and tension. The lads had no idea what was waiting for them in America.


	8. Under the Sea

This was probably one of Zayn's worst nightmares. Scratch that, this was his worst nightmare. He looked away from the ocean, ignoring the way the waves rocked the boat. The bile built up in his throat and much to Zayn's disappointment, he threw up for the sixth time that day.

He felt a hand rub his back softly, as he threw up what was left of his lunch. "I'm guessing you aren't feeling any better" Liam said quietly, staring sadly at his boyfriend.

Zayn shook his head no, leaning back into the boat. He couldn't close his eyes without feeling nauseous and dizzy. "How are Niall and Harry doing?" he asked, taking his mind off of the sea and the constant rocking back and forth.

"They are tired, but are hanging in there" Liam answered with a proud smile. Niall was creating a strong current to pull the boat to America. The longer he held the current, the faster they would arrive to their destination. Harry was making a constant wind blow the sail on the ship. With their combined power, Liam estimated arriving in America by the night's end, if there was no stopping to rest.

"Have they taken a break yet?" Zayn questioned, not wanting his boyfriends to be overworked.

Liam shook his head no "but Louis is helping them out for a bit. He is pulling the boat in whale form, so that means Harry and Niall don't need to use as much energy as before."

Nodding his head, Zayn stood up and headed down below the boat to grab a bottle of water and maybe find some sleeping pills. Liam followed behind him, wanting to speak at Adalard.

Below the ship were bunk beds and small tables. The group from Germany were spread out, many of them playing card games or just conversing. They were excited to finally leave their country and take a stand. The lads were giving them something to fight for.

Zayn headed over to the food table, grabbing a bottle of water to wash to bad taste of bile out of his mouth.

Adalard was at the back of the boat, observing a map on the table in front of her. Surrounding the table were the leaders of the other groups that Liam had finally learned the names of. He even had the chance to talk to each of them individually.

Malene was Liam's second favorite leader, right below Adalard. She had a sick sense of humor and never took any slack from anyone. She had a scar running down the left side of her face, which no one knew the origin of where it came from. Malene's running gag was continually changing the story of how she got her scar.

Liam still wasn't sure if he trusted Jacob, since he was the leader who tried to shoot him. Jacob was the youngest of the leaders and had a very arrogant attitude. He trusted few people and mostly kept to himself. Liam did not go out of his way to try and converse with the man, and Jacob did the same.

The last leader was Han, who the the oldest out of the four. What he lacked in fighting skills, he made up for knowledge. Before the Fearsome Five attacked, he was a scientist, and one of the best in Germany. He had so many stories and advice, Liam could talk to him for hours on end.

Sure the Freedom Fighters got off to a rocky start with the other leaders, but the lads needed all the allies they could get.

As Liam walked up to the table he announced "we should be arriving in Florida by nightfall."

"Good, the faster I get off this damn boat, the better" Malene commented, with a smirk forming on her face. "I have never been a big fan of boats."

"Why?" Liam asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.

Malene stared intently at the boy. "When I was little my parents took me out on a boat. A storm hit us in the middle of the day, and a large wave washed my mother off of the ship. That was the last time I ever saw her."

"Really" Liam gasped, trying to think of something to say to console her.

Laughter broke out from the other leaders. Between chuckles Adalard explained "she is messing with you Liam. Malene loves to exaggerate the truth."

"Yea" Malene agreed, with a proud smile. "My parents are actually on board of this ship. I think they sleeping, since that is all old people do."

Jacob rolled his eyes, uncrossing his arms. "Can we please be serious for more than 5 minutes? We could be heading straight into a trap and no one seems to care."

"We care, it's just not something we want to focus on 24/7" Han answered. "It is not healthy to dwell on negativity."

"Thanks for the advice, maybe I will take that into consideration when our lives aren't in danger."

"You're no fun" Malene pouted. "I swear if I stuck coal up your ass, you would shit out a diamond."

Jacob faked laugh at the comment and stormed away from the table. The empty chair rocked back and forth. "You're such a baby" Malene called out. "You would think after all these years he would learn how to take a joke."

"Liam, why don't you take Jacob's seat and go over the plan again" Adalard suggested, after watching the lad hover around the table awkwardly.

The empty chair was soon occupied, as Liam sat down. His eyes wandered over to Zayn who was attempting to fall asleep on one of the beds. An older coupler was giving Zayn what Liam assumed to be sleeping pills. Now that Liam knew his boyfriend was in good hands, he turned his attention over to the leaders.

He stared at the map of Florida in front of him. They needed to pick a place to land that wasn't too far away from the Freedom Fighters campsite, but also not too close.

As Liam sat deep in thought, Han spoke up "maybe we should send your friend Louis to check the area of Florida before we land. He can turn into a bird and check to see if we walking into a trap. That way we do not waste hours of precious time trying to find a safe place to dock the boat."

"No" Liam snapped, his tone coming off more angry than it should. "We are not risking my boyfriend's life."

"So you would rather us risk everybody on the ship."

"Well no, I don't want that either" the boy sighed, unsure of what to do.

Just as Liam was about to respond Jacob cut him off, appearing right behind him. "Can't Louis summon any animal to do his bidding. So he can make a flock of birds and have them fly over Florida, that way we see more of the area without having to risk his life. Then all the birds can report back what they saw."

Malene clapped Jacob on the back. "I take everything mean I ever said about you."

The meeting adjourned shortly after with each leader setting off to tell their people the new plan of using Louis's animals to scout the land.

Before Jacob walked away, he stopped in front of the boy. He lowered his voice so that Liam would be the only one that heard him and stated "just for the record I want you to know I don't hate you and your boyfriends. I just want to keep my friends alive. We are risking everything by helping you, and I don't want my group to be the one to pay the ultimate price for it."

"I won't let that happen. We will protect all of you till our dying breath" Liam promised, meaning every single word he said. The two men shook hands, and Liam could have sworn he saw a small smile flash across Jacob's face.

The ship bounced up and down, as the boy walked towards the food table. He grabbed enough food for both Harry and Niall to eat, since they were both burning so much energy.

With an armful of snacks, he made his way up the stairs to the front of the boat. The massive sail surged forward as a strong gust of wind pushed it.

When he arrived at the steering wheel, he saw his two exhausted boyfriend's sitting crossed legged on the ground. They were both pale and had sweat running down both of their faces. They both looked ready to collapse at any moment.

"I brought you guys some food" Liam stated, sitting down next the lads. Niall was too weak to even turn his head to look at his boyfriend.

"Thanks" Harry whispered, his voice hoarse and scratchy.

Concern washed over Liam, as he observed the two boys. "Have you guys taken a break yet?"

"Not yet. We can rest when we get to America" Niall muttered, feeling a wave a dizziness wash over him. Talking was too much effort for the blond at the current moment. His hands shook as he grabbed an apple from the pile of food Liam brought.

Taking a bite, Niall felt the sour juices run down his throat. It gave him some energy back, but not enough. After he finished the apple, he downed two bottles of water, while Harry drank four bottles.

"Please take a break" Liam begged, fearing for Niall and Harry's safety.

"We can have the breaks we want once we get to the shore" Harry stated, not even turning to face Liam.

Liam attempted to converse more than his boyfriends, but he was ignored. Begrudgingly, he got up and headed down to Adalard. He took one last look at his boyfriends, knowing he could do nothing to help them.

On the water Liam and Zayn were out of their element, and could not offer an help or assistance. He hated making the other three work so hard while he contributed nothing.

Below the deck, the boy was met with an uncomfortable silence. All eyes were on Adalard as she held the satellite phone against her ear.

Creeping forward, Liam couldn't help but grow worried. Jacob ran up to the lad to explain "it is the ones who have your friend on the phone. They called only moments ago."

Liam's mind went blank, but somehow his feet carried him over to Adalard. She had the phone on speaker. "Can you give the phone to one of the Freedom Fighters?" the voice taunted, sounding slightly annoyed.

This was a new voice, it sounded female. She mumbled something that Liam couldn't make out, and then he heard rustling of the phone being handed to someone else.

A male voice spoke into the phone and ordered "who am I talking to?"

"My name is Adalard" the woman answered. Jacob's eyebrows shot up in concern. He couldn't believe she had given her name to the person on the phone.

"Adalard, where are you?"

"On a boat heading over to Florida."

"What the hell" Malene hissed, lunging at the phone.

"FREEZE" the male voice screamed, when he heard the commotion of someone trying to take the phone from Adalard. "Nobody move or speak until I say you can."

Liam's whole body went rigid, none of his limbs worked no matter how hard he tried. Looking around the room, he soon realized he wasn't the only one experiencing his body freezing in place. When he opened his mouth, much to his dismay no words came out.

"Now that their will be no more interruptions, Adalard how close are you to Florida?"

"A couple hours away."

"Very good" he praised. "I need you to hand the phone to Liam now. Tell him, his friend Peter wishes to speak to him."

Adalard began to walk towards Liam, her eyes glazed over like she wasn't in control of her body. "Adalard after Liam gets the phone, I want you to jump off of the ship and drown yourself."

Liam wanted to scream, he wanted to be to do something, instead of watching the older woman hand him the phone and go upstairs.

"Hello Liam" Peter greeted, sounding very smug. "You may speak now."

"I hate you" Liam growled, trying to convey all the emotions he was feeling to Peter. "You better unfreeze me right now."

"Why? Do you wish to save your friend?"

"Yes."

"Just say the magic word."

Liam hesitated, before finally saying "please."

Peter laughed at the boy, mocking him over the phone. "No need to beg, boy. You may go save her, if she hasn't already jumped."

As Liam went to hang up the phone, Peter stopped him. "Don't I get a thank you?"

Weighing his options, Liam decided to take the safest route. "Thank you" Liam grumbled, hanging up the phone.

He dropped the phone on the ground and ran to the top of the deck. Just as he reached the top, he saw Adalard jump overboard. "NOOOO" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

He knew the second she hit the water, Niall's strong current would suck her up.

"Niall stop the current" Liam called out, kicking off his shoes. He didn't wait for a response before diving head first into the ocean. He was not going to let anybody else die on his watch.

The water was freezing cold, and the current pushed Liam in all directions. He had no idea which way was up or down. He searched for any sign of the woman, but couldn't keep still long enough for his eyes to register what he was seeing. All he saw was white foam and bubbles. His body was being pushed by the current, and no matter how hard he kicked he was at the mercy of the current The back of his head collided with the boat, causing him to see stars. A trail of red left the back of his head, as he fought to stay conscious.

The last bubble of oxygen escaped from his mouth as his vision finally went black. Before his eyes closed Liam could have sworn he felt the current become calmer.


	9. The First to Go

A ringing in his ears alerted Liam to one of two things. One, he was alive and the second was that he out of the water. His eyes slowly opened, only to be blinded by sunlight.

Groaning, his snapped his eyes shut and rolled over on his side, coughing up some water in the progress. He breathed in and out slowly, not wanting to stress his lungs too much.

He wanted to know who saved him and if Adalard was okay. Using a good bit of strength, Liam sat up and cracked his eyes open.

Across the deck, he saw a soaking wet Louis hovering behind Zayn who was attempting mouth to mouth to the older woman. Niall had tears streaming down his face, his whole body shaking from exhaustion and sadness. Harry was closer to Liam, and seemed to be putting all his attention on making the wind push the ship.

"Come on Adalard" Zayn cried, pushing against her chest. "Wake up, please." He continued to breathe air into the woman, praying it would work. "Can't you do anything, Niall?" he asked harshly, not intending to come out sounding so mean.

A sob escaped the blond's lips. "I bended the water out of her lungs, there is nothing else I can do."

Zayn kept trying to revive the woman, even though it was no use. It had been minutes since she was pulled from the water. Adalard wouldn't come back from this. Zayn's CPR became rougher and rougher, and Liam could have sworn he heard her ribs crack.

A hand placed itself on Zayn's shoulder, as he started pounding on her chest again. "Zayn, I'm sorry, but she is gone" Louis soothed, trying to get his boyfriend away from the deceased woman.

Zayn shrugged off Louis's hand, and continued with his task. Louis fell to the ground, howling in grief. He wanted Zayn to stop, he wanted to do something.

The older woman's chest finally collapsed from all the pounding it endured, which finally made Zayn stop. The realization hit him that she wasn't coming back. The little fantasy world he was in, was gone now. Replaced by the cold reality, where people die in a blink of an eye.

Grief and anger washed over him. He wasn't angry at any of his boyfriends, but himself mostly. If only he could have done more.

Zayn had woken up right after everybody on the boat froze, and Adalard was sent to her death. He watched Liam run up to the deck, and helplessly ran after. By the time he made it to the top of the stairs, Liam had jumped overboard.

Jumping in after his boyfriend was not an option, since Zayn did not know how to swim. He stood at the edge of the boat, praying to see Liam break the surface. The current pushed against the boat roughly, showing no sign of letting up.

Zayn had darted over to the blond begging him to stop the boat. Niall listened, falling on his side in exhaustion. He and Harry were in no shape to save Liam and Adalard.

As Zayn got ready to dive overboard, Louis's head broke out of the water. In his grasp was an unconscious Liam and Adalard. He reached down and grabbed the woman's arm, pulling her back onto the boat. When he felt no pulse, he started doing CPR, up until her body finally gave out.

While he attempted to revive the woman, Louis must have climbed on board with Liam with the help of Niall.

Zayn blinked his eyes, coming back to reality. The loss of hope and life made Zayn lose control, which is something he hadn't done since his days of fighting the Fearsome Five. A wave of fire shot out of his arms, causing the sail to catch on fire. The deck erupted in flames, and Zayn was filled with shame. He debated on whether or not he should just jump off the boat, before he hurt anymore people.

Before the flames could get any worse, Louis transformed into a humpback whale, splashing a giant wave of out over the boat, instantly putting out the fires.

Liam came up right behind Zayn pleading "you need to calm down. If you don't you could burn this whole ship down."

But Zayn couldn't no matter how hard he tried. His heart rate quickened, and his breathing became more erratic. He tried to breathe slowly to calm himself, but whenever he saw Adalard's body the panic took over. "I'm sorry" Zayn cried, his arms once again igniting.

The flames built up, getting ready to shoot out once more, when Zayn's body fell to the ground unconscious. Behind Zayn was a wild eyed Harry, holding a large chunk of wood. "If I didn't knock him out, he would have killed everybody on this ship" he explaining, throwing the wood on the ground.

Harry looked at his remaining boyfriends and frowned at what he saw. Niall was asleep on the ground, and Liam looked like he was ready to full out sob. Louis didn't look much better with tears and snot already running down his face.

"Everybody just needs to calm the fuck down" Harry screamed, his patience wearing thin. "Once we get to America you all can cry all you like, but right now we are stranded in the middle of the goddamn ocean with a frozen army downstairs. I am going to keep the wind pushing the sail, but you guys just can't sit around and cry."

Wiping away the tears, Liam agreed "you're right, we need to focus on the other issues at hand. I guess I'll try and figure out how to unfreeze everybody downstairs."

Both boys looked over at Louis to see what he would do. What they saw was a blubbering mess on the floor. He pulled his knees against his chest and rocked back and forth. Liam started to walk towards his boyfriend, but was stopped by Harry. "Leave him" Harry barked, pushing down his sadness and guilt. "You can help him once, you help the people downstairs."

Liam wanted to disagree, but begrudgingly he headed downstairs. Even under the deck, he could still hear Louis's cries of agony. He wondered how the others would react when they unfreeze.

When he reached the bottom of the deck, everybody was in the same position as before. Running over to Jacob, the boy waved his hand in front of frozen man's face. There was no reaction from the leader. His eyes were glazed over and his face still wore a concerned expression.

The boy tried moving his arm, but to no avail. Not even pushing him over, knocked Jacob out of his daze. "Come on" he growled, not wanting to succumb to tears. Now was not the time to start feeling sorry for himself. The only other option was calling back the people who did this to the crew.

Liam didn't want to do that, but he wasn't sure what else he could do. Slowly, he walked towards the god forsaken phone and picked it up. It was still warm from when Liam held it last. He knew this was a horrible idea and that he would probably regret, but he had no other options left.

Another sob left Louis from above the deck, making Liam want to drop what he was doing and run to his boyfriend. But he couldn't, at least not yet. Once everybody could move on their own, he would go to Louis and cry with him. The faster he spoke with the enemies over the phone, the faster Louis would be in his arms.

Before he knew what he was doing, his fingers hit the redial button. The phone rang 5 times before he heard a click. Nobody spoke at first, and all Liam could hear on the other end of the phone was breathing.

He wanted to hang up, but his heart wouldn't let him. Finally after a mini debate in his mind he spoke. "Is Peter there?"

"Depends on who is asking" a female responded, her voice a little deep for a girl.

"You damn well know who is it" Liam barked, his hand forming a fist. "Put Peter on the goddamn phone. Now!"

"That is no way to speak to a lady" Peter scolded from the other end of the phone. "I believe you owe my dear friend an apology."

"No, you owe me one for killing my friend."

"Actually" the man countered "I gave you the chance to save her. It's not my fault your incompetence got in the way. Why didn't any of the Freedom Fighters help you? Is it because they are weak just like you?"

"SHUT UP" Liam screamed, losing all his patience. "Unfreeze my crew."

The next voice was the female from before. "Why should we help you?"

"If you don't, we won't make it to America."

"That doesn't sound like my problem."

With each word that left the girl's mouth, Liam grew more and more angry. He released his breath and tried to think happy thoughts. No matter how much he argued, the enemy would not unfreeze the crew. Swallowing his pride, he did the one thing he knew would work. "Will you please unfreeze my crew?"

"Well since you asked so nicely, I shall grant you, your wish" Peter responded, his voice laced with sarcasm. "But first I am going to need you to apologize to my friend Natalie, and you have to mean it."

Rolling his eyes, Liam put as much sincerity as he could into his voice. "I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it."

"It's okay, I forgive you" Natalie replied cheerfully.

"I am assuming I am on speaker" Peter stated. Liam hummed in agreement. "Good. Everybody unfreeze and go find you dead friend. I shall see you soon Liam, can't wait to meet you officially."

The dial tone was what Liam heard next, as Peter hung up the phone.

Groans erupted from around the room, as the people stretched their bodies. "What the hell just happened?" Jacob questioned, walking up to Liam. "Where is Adalard?"

The mere mention of the woman's name was enough to finally set Liam off. His knees gave way and he fell to the ground, allowing the tears to flow freely down his face.

Without a word, Jacob took off to find the older woman. He guessed what had happened from the boy's reaction, but he still needed to see for himself.

She lay on the edge of the deck, looking almost like she could be sleeping. Her hair and clothes were dry, but her lips and skin were blue. Even though he knew the answer, Jacob still checked her pulse. The skin was cold to touch, and he felt no heartbeat.

He swore in that very moment, he would get revenge for Adalard. He would kill the man on the phone who made her jump to her death. "Your death will not be in vain" the man promised, kissing her limp hand.

By this time the rest of the people were on top deck, staring at the woman's dead body. The sobs of the people overpowered the waves of the sea.

Harry climbed up the sail of the boat, trying to block out the crying. He covered his ears, and kept his mind distracted from Adalard. With his mind closed off, he focused all his attention on moving the ship forward. It was all up to him now, Niall was no longer useful. He knew they were getting close, Harry could sense a huge mass of land in the distance.

While the army mourned their lost, Liam picked up Louis, Zayn and Niall, carrying them below deck. He tucked the blond and Zayn into a bunk bed, and sat on the edge of it with Louis. He tried his best to comfort his boyfriend. When the sleeping boys woke up, Liam guessed they would be in America. He hoped Zayn would be calmer when he woke up, they couldn't have him have another fire attack.

He rocked Louis back and forth, trying to get his sobbing to subdue. "I'm scared Liam" the boy cried out. "I have a feeling this won't be the first lost we experience."

"Hey nothing bad is going to happen to you. I promise to keep you and the others safe."

"It won't matter" he said, ending the conversation. Louis crawled out of Liam's arms and squeezed in between Zayn and Niall. All this crying had worn the boy out, and he fell asleep in a couple seconds.

Liam sat in complete silence, rethinking the plan of entering the country. The enemy seems to have known their every move. They were always one step ahead of the Freedom Fighters. Liam feared the only thing they would find in Florida would be death. And he knew his boyfriends would not be able to handle anymore death.

As Liam sat there contemplating the entire plan, Jacob came running downstairs. "We spotted land in the distance" he reported, grabbing Liam by the arm. "We made it to America."

He pulled the boy out of the bed, not wanting the lad to be alone any longer. Jacob needed Liam to realize that he was not blamed for Adalard's death. The blame fell on the enemies, who commanded her to drown herself.

Arriving on the deck, Liam saw the sun was beginning to set. He figured he must have been downstairs by myself for hours just thinking. He would be glad to get off the boat, but worried about what awaited him and the others on land.

"When we land, we are going to bury Adalard. She wanted to go to America, so that is where her body will lay" Jacob told Liam staring at the country in awe. In each passing minute, they got closer and closer. "I wish she was here to see it."

"Me too" Liam sighed, wiping away the tears forming in his eyes. The time of mourning was over, he had other issues to worry about like how he was going to keep everybody alive. "I should go wake up my team" he said, excusing himself from the deck.

With a grim face, he woke up the others. Niall sat up silently asking "did I dream it or did Adalard actually die?"

"It's true" Liam consoled, watching the blond's face, waiting to see how he would respond.

Niall nodded his head, and scooted out of bed not saying another word. The other two reacted the same way, none of them knew what to say. Adalard was dead because of them, and their idea to go to America. They should have never involved the German groups.

They walked to the edge of the boat, and stared aimlessly ahead at Florida. The closer they got, the more fear built up in Louis. He regretted the plan, and just wanted to go back to the lake where they had their date.

Harry floated down from the sail, landing next to the lads. "Niall will take over for me? I need to rest for a bit."

The blond nodded his head and made a current, carrying the boat to the shore. Harry slipped down to the ground, sitting cross legged. He shut his eyes and blocked out the world and all his troubles.

Louis squeezed Liam's hand. "This is it" he whispered. "The second we get on land there will be no turning back. We can still go back, you know. It's not too late. We can go back to Germany and live at the lake. Screw the world, we saved it once. The world has done nothing for us."

Liam looked over at the rambling Louis, and shushed him with a kiss. "We are not turning back. We will defeat this new threat, just like the Fearsome Five." Louis still didn't look convinced. "I swear everything is going to be okay" Liam promised, though he didn't believe the own words coming out of his mouth.


	10. One or the Other

The funeral was held shortly after docking the boat. Liam insisted on using his powers to dig the grave, but Jacob wouldn't allow it. The man wanted to dig the hole by hand, but he wouldn't do it alone. The whole German group joined in with him, forming a worthy grave for the deceased woman.

The other leaders spoke of Adalard's accomplishments and how she was taken too soon. Liam took his place next to Jacob, waiting for his turn to speak of how the woman had helped him. His eyes scanned over the crowd, stopping when he was met with the blue ones of Niall. The blond had a sobbing Louis leaning against him.

His eyes searched to find Zayn, but he couldn't find his jet black hair anywhere. When he really thought about it, he hadn't seen his boyfriend since the boat docked. Zayn had went on a walk to clear his head and had yet to return. The mop of curly hair was what he found next. Harry was sleeping against a boulder, and it seemed as though no one had the heart to wake him up.

Jacob began his speech next, snapping Liam out of his trance. He wasn't too worried about Zayn, but he was a bit angry he was missing Adalard's funeral.

A tap on his shoulder signaled to Liam that it was his turn to talk. He stepped up to the grave and stared sadly at the pile of dirt. "I wish I could have known Adalard longer, but from the few weeks I knew her she seemed like an amazing woman. I considered her a great friend. She had such hope in us to fix the world. I was surprised that after years of so much suffering, she could still find a light at the end of the tunnel.

I admired everything about Adalard. I admired her bravery to stand up for us. I mean she took a bullet for me. Once she had her mind set on something she would stick with it." Liam paused to wipe the tears from his eyes. "I promise to avenge her death. I will make Peter pay for what he did. We all will make him pay." This earned some cheers from the crowd. Everyone was thirsty for a taste of Peter's blood.

Liam bent down and picked up a handful of dirt. He threw it on the already filled in grave and made one final promise to make Adalard proud. He would fix the world in honor of her.

The sobbing continued long after the funeral ended. Each person from her group spent time around her grave, also making promises Liam guessed many of them wouldn't be able to keep.

He made his way towards Louis and Niall, who both look like complete wrecks. "How you holding up?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"How does it look?" Louis retorted, his face red and puffy from all the crying. Niall patted Louis's back and gave him a sympathetic look.

"Maybe you can make some flowers grow over her grave" Liam suggested, unsure of what to say to make Louis feel better.

New tears formed in his boyfriend's eyes. "I am not going anywhere near that grave. We should have never come here."

"Did you forget why we made the journey in the first place?" Liam seethed, losing his cool. How could everyone forget the original mission. "We are here to save Paul and Simon, or is that not important to you. What if the bad guys have Coraline? Should we go home and leave them to suffer at Peter's mercy?"

This seemed to set Louis off even more. "Go away" he screamed.

"Liam, you aren't really helping. Let me see if I can calm him down" Niall said quietly, so only Liam heard. Nodding his head, the boy went over to wake up his sleeping boyfriend.

At the rock, he could see Harry was awake and staring at his surroundings. When Liam approached, Harry turned his head to watch him. "I don't understand why Louis is so upset about Adalard" Harry commented, his face devoid of emotion. "We didn't even know her for that long. She was cool and all, but we have other people to worry about."

Liam agreed, but he felt guilty doing so. It felt like he was putting down Adalard, and all the ways she had helped them. "I mean they could be watching us right now" Harry continued. "We are leaving ourselves open for an attack. The more time we waste here, the more Peter could be hurting our mentors."

Unsure of what to do, Liam sulked over to Jacob and the other leaders. Harry followed behind him, unafraid of sharing his opinion to everyone. Malene flashed Liam a small smile "your speech was great. Adalard would be proud of you taking over her leadership."

"What" Liam gasped, this was the first he was hearing of this.

"Were you not told yet?" Malene asked, her face turning red.

Han shook his head no. "We were going to wait to tell him tonight."

"I don't think I should take her place" Liam affirmed, was there not anybody worthy from her amy to take over as leader.

This time it was Jacob who convinced Liam to take up their offer. "It is what Adalard would have wanted."

How could Liam say no to that? But he didn't know if he could handle the responsibility, he had his own team to worry about. Jacob looked at him expectantly. Without thinking, Liam agreed to take her place. In hindsight he should have asked his boyfriends before making the decision, but it was too late to change his mind.

Harry stood silently behind him, watching in annoyance as Liam took up the leadership. "Should we start planning our next more?" Harry suggested, his voice cold.

"I believe we should let our group mourn before we start to move" Han answered, his eyes narrowing at Harry.

"We can't stay here any longer. We are vulnerable."

"I will not let my people move, if they are not in the right mindset."

"Fine" Harry huffed, crossing his arms. "Then me and my team will go without you."

Liam's eyes went wide. "You don't speak for me or the others, Harry. We are a team. We dragged the Germans here with us, so we will not be leaving them."

"Who died and made you the boss of everything? You act like your word is final."

"I am the leader the Freedom Fighters, Harry. And now I am the leader of a whole new group of people. I have to think about their needs as well."

"So are the Germans more important than us, because ever since we met them you have been pretty distant. Every thought is either about these stupid Germans or Simon. You better get your priorities straight Liam. You can't be in charge of both groups, you are going to the reason one of us gets killed" Harry seethed, beginning to shake with anger.

He stormed off, before his boyfriend could respond. In his mind he regretted some of what he said. He had not meant for it to come out so harsh, but what's done is done.

With a horrified expression, Liam sheepishly turned to the other leaders who had listened to their whole conversation. "I am so sorry about him, Harry isn't good at expressing his feelings."

"It's fine" Jacob assured, resting his hand on the boy's shoulder. "We all deal with grief and stress differently. Harry is worried about your safety. I believe he is lashing out because he fears the unknown."

"Makes sense" Malene commented. "Now please go talk to your boyfriend. It will make you feel a lot better and I'm sure Harry would appreciate spending some time with you."

Taking up on the leader's' advice, Liam went after Harry. Lucky for him, he knew exactly where his boyfriend was at.

Harry was having an intense conversation with Niall, when Liam approached. They both stopped talking as Liam got closer. "How is Louis doing?"

"Better, no thanks to you" Niall responded, coldly.

"What could I have possibly done to upset you, Niall?" Liam asked, beginning to grow frustrated with how his boyfriends were treating him.

The area around Liam grew freezing cold. "How could you accept the leadership position of Adalard's group without even asking us? You can't run two groups at once Liam."

"Why can't I? Why are you both putting me down so much? Are you jealous?" Liam accused. "Jealous that everyone follows me. It's not my fault you're too shy and uncharismatic to lead."

Liam knew he screwed up the second the words left his mouth. Breathing out he saw his own breath and started to rub his hands together to keep them warm. The trees and grass around him froze over, making a winter wonderland out of 20 foot radius him and his boyfriends were standing in.

"You know who you sound like, Roberts" Harry spat, ignoring the hurt flash across Liam's face. "You think you are so much better than us. Have you forgotten all that we have been through? We don't know these Germans. They are not the Freedom Fighters, and we should not have brought them with us. They will only slow us down."

The tempters of the three boys were reaching their boiling point. They all knew the next person to speak would set them all off. The lads were about to have their first real fight.

"What's going on?" Louis croaked from the edge of the snow covered grass. "How could you guys be fighting on the day of Adalard's funeral?"

"We are only fighting because Liam is being a selfish prick" Harry replied, sending glares to Liam.

That did it for Liam. "You want to fight so bad. Fine let's do it." Liam stomped his foot on the ground, sending catastrophic seismic waves to Harry and Niall.

Harry was quick to react and soured into the air. Niall on the other hand, fell roughly on his butt and was thrown around by the vibrations. Harry nosedived down towards Liam, slamming him hard against the ground. Raising his fist, Harry repeatedly landed punches on his boyfriend's face.

Louis screamed in protest, but waited off on the sidelines. He knew better than to get in between of the fighting lads.

As Harry's fist swooped around to make contact, Liam lifted a boulder and smacked it against Harry's side. The impact threw Harry roughly on the ground, causing him to lose his breath. He pelted rocks at Harry before the boy could regain himself. With each rock hitting his skin, Harry would groan more in pain.

Liam went to strike again, when his whole body was frozen over. He was trapped inside a giant ice cube, and powerless. Struggling against his cold restraints, Niall walked over to him.

It was difficult for Liam to see though, his vision was blinded by the blood dripping into his eye. From what Liam could tell, he guessed he had a broken nose, two black eyes, and a swollen face. He wasn't sure what else Niall could break.

The blond brought up his hand and slapped Liam across the face. Somehow the slap was what hurt Liam the most. "We came to America because of you and now you pushing us away to be with the Germans. How could you Liam? You promised never to hurt me" Niall cried, losing concentration on his ice. "How could you break your promise?" The cube holding Liam began melting away.

When Liam looked over at Harry, he saw Louis consoling him. Harry looked even worse than Liam. He had large cuts running down his arms and legs. The nasty gash on his forehead was deep enough that Liam could see muscle.

"Liam you're supposed to the strong one out of us" Louis scolded, wiping away the blood off of Harry's head. "If you want to be a leader so bad act like one."

"Why does all the responsibility fall on me" Liam yelled out, his lip wobbling. "I am trying so hard to make everybody happy. No matter what I do I mess it up. If you think you can do so much better than why don't you step up since everyone has such a problem with me running both groups."

"Fine I will" Louis huffed, turning away from Liam.

"Good because I'm done. Find a new leader to be in charge of the Freedom Fighters" Once the ice holding him fully melted away, the boy stormed off. His face hurt like hell, but he was not going to ask Niall to heal it. He and the lads needed some space to think about everything. Their relationship was what consumed Liam's thoughts. Was this the end of their love? He hoped it wasn't.

Instead of going back to the other leaders, Liam went to find Zayn. He had a lot to get off his chest and wanted somebody to be on his side.

Surprisingly he found Zayn easily, he was making his way back into the group when Liam stopped him. Zayn looked a whole lot better than he did in the morning. Before he looked as though he was ready to lay down and die. Any feeling of being angry at him for missing the funeral washed away.

Running up to his boyfriend, Liam greeted "how was your walk?"

"Pretty goo..Oh my god what happened to your face?" Zayn asked, concern etched on his face.

"Can we go somewhere to talk?"

"Yeah" Zayn answered, wrapping his arm around Liam's. "Maybe a walk will do you some good."

The walk in the woods was peaceful and helped Liam clear his head. "This day has just been really shitty."

"You can say that again. I can't believe she's dead" Zayn stated, letting go of his boyfriend's hand. His voice was calm, the sadness seemingly gone from him.

"How are you handling her death so well, just this morning you couldn't even get through one sentence without sobbing. I mean no offense, but you almost burned down the boat."

Zayn hesitated before answering Liam. "I am still sad, but I pushed my emotions down. We have more important issues to deal with."

"You're right. We have a rescue mission to plan with or without Niall, Louis and Harry's help."


	11. Who to Trust

The next few days were tense in the camp, as the group traveled to the Freedom Fighter's base. Liam's boyfriends refused to talk to him except Zayn, who seemed to be the mediator between the lads. With each passing hour, Liam grew madder at his boyfriends. He thought they were acting immature, but he wasn't acting much differently. He was ignoring the lads, just as much as they were.

They were traveling by foot at a grueling slow pace, because of the amount of people in the group. Han, Jacob, Liam, and Malene lead the charge, setting the slow pace for their people. At the rear was Harry, Louis, and Niall.

Liam's body still hurt from the last altercation he had with his boyfriend's, so he had no plan of talking to them anytime soon. He was glad of the slow pace, they were walking. If they went any faster, he knew his legs would give out.

He was so engrossed in the pain all over his body, Liam didn't notice Jacob walk up beside him. "Hey Liam, do you think you can have Louis check the area in front of us? I don't want to send our people into a trap."

"Why don't you ask him since he won't even look at me?"

"If Louis is mad at you than he must hate me, since I am the one who suggested you become the new leader." That still didn't convince the earth bender, so Jacob went to his next form of persuasion, guilt. "Liam, do you really want to walk your new group into a massacre?"

"No" the boy sighed, running his hand through his hair nervously. "I guess, I'll go ask him."

Louis wasn't hard to find. He was at the back of the group in between Niall and Harry. They were in the middle of talking to Zayn, when Liam approached.

Harry's face instantly dropped. "What do you want?" he asked coldly.

"I need to talk to Louis."

"Why?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were Louis's bodyguard" Liam retorted. "I think Louis can take care of himself."

Harry scrunched his fists up, staring angrily at his boyfriend. "Want to go for a round two? I will gladly add another bruise to your already fucked up face."

"Guys please calm down, maybe we should see what Louis wants to do" Zayn suggested, trying to defuse the situation.

The blond agreed "we shouldn't keep fighting. We need to keep our strength up, incase the new villains attack."

Releasing his breath, Harry let the tension out of his body and went back next to Louis, whispering something in his ear. Liam didn't understand why his boyfriends were treating him like a bad guy.

Finally Louis agreed to let Liam talk to him, but it had to be in front of the others. Begrudgingly, Liam requested for Louis to turn into a bird and fly over the land to try and see there were any enemies. He also wanted Louis to see how close they were to finding the Freedom Fighter's base.

What Liam didn't expect to happen was for Harry to jump down his throat. "So let me get this straight" he seethed, and Liam could have sworn he saw smoke leaving his ears. "You don't want your new team to get hurt, so you are willing to risk Louis's life over theirs. Do you have any idea how vulnerable he will be flying in the sky by himself? He could get shot out of the sky and none of us would be there to help him."

"God damn it" Liam screamed, stomping his foot on the ground. "Stop making me look like an asshole. I am trying my best to make everybody happy. I just don't want to be responsible for any more deaths. Can you please just help me out this one time and I swear I won't ask anything of you again?"

Before Harry could respond, Louis agreed to help. A look of appreciation filled Liam's face, now he could relax about the possibility of sending the Germans into an attack.

Niall wanted to oppose the plan, but he stopped himself. He didn't want to piss off Liam anymore. He just wanted everything to go back to normal. Hesitantly, he followed behind his boyfriends. He worried if Louis got hurt, he would not be able to heal him in time.

They went to the front of the group, where the other German leaders were waiting for them. Without saying a word, Louis transformed into a goose. Just to be extra safe he made a flock of geese surround him, when he took off into the sky. Unlike the other geese, Louis had a small red spot on his head. There were so many birds, that the lads lost track of which one Louis was. "Stay safe" Niall whispered, watching the sky. He didn't look away, until Louis became a black spect.

The plan was to wait hidden in the forest, until Louis came back. Fires were built around the makeshift camp as lunch was served.

Zayn had somehow convinced Niall and Harry to join Liam at his bonfire. At first nobody spoke, they each just stared at the flames. Niall then asked "do you want me to heal your face?"

"If you wouldn't mind. I would love to be able to walk without constant pain in my ribs."

The blond opened up his water bottle, and had the water wrap around his hands. He touched his hand against Liam's chest, and watched the water seep into his body. The purple skin turned yellow and then went back to its normal shade. Once Niall was satisfied with the chest, he moved on to Liam's face. He healed his black eye and battered up face, making Liam look as good as new.

Smiling at the interaction, Zayn stuck his food into the fire.

Harry meanwhile grew frustrated with how slow his food was cooking. He turned over to Zayn, knowing he could make his food ready to eat in seconds. "Hey do you think you could help cook up my food a bit faster?" Harry requested, shoving his chicken on a stick in front of Zayn.

The smile dropped from Zayn's face. "Umm I don't want to."

"Is it because of what happened on the boat?" the lad speculated, remembering how Zayn had lost control of his powers.

"Yes" Zayn said, pausing. "I don't want to talk about it."

Harry decided not to push it, and hovered his chicken over the fire. The lads maintained small talk, but Zayn contributed little to the conversation.

"I'm sorry" Harry blurted out, after finishing his meal. "I should not have hit you, Liam."

As Liam opened his mouth to respond, a gunshot rang out. The birds in the nearby trees flew into the sky startled by the loud noise.

All thought of apologizing erased from Liam's head. "How far was that gunshot?"

"It sounded like it was miles away" Niall answered, getting to his feet. He looked over towards Liam. "What should we do?"

"We go in the direction of the gun. If it's Louis we need to be there to heal him."

"What about your German group?" Harry questioned harshly.

"Well they can just wait here till we get back. Louis is the important thing right now."

Another gunshot rang out, forcing Harry and Niall to start running. Liam wasn't far behind, stopping only briefly to explain where him and the others were going. Zayn walked behind the others, looking like his almost debating about going with them.

"Aren't you coming Zayn?" Niall yelled from over his shoulder, shooting Zayn a pleading look.

"I'm going to stay with the Germans in case they are attacked."

There was little room to argue, when more than 20 gunshots sounded at once.

They ran as fast as they could, not caring of the twigs scratching at their arms and legs. The closer they got the more gunshots they heard.

Harry went to fly up into the sky, when Liam grabbed his arm. "Whoever is out there, they have guns and from the sounds of it an army. If you fly up there, you will be an open target."

The boy let out a whine of protest, but didn't argue any further. They ran for miles, not once slowing down. They heard one final gunshot and then silence.

A clearing came up ahead, and somehow Niall had gotten in front of Liam and Harry. When he looked out into the meadow, he opened his mouth to scream. Before the scream left his mouth, Liam put his hand of the blond's face. He shushed him, not wanting Niall to give away their location.

All over the ground was blood. Scattered across what once was green grass was dead birds. It was birds all of shapes and sizes, but mostly it was geese.

Niall broke away from Liam's grip and ran over to the nearest goose. "Louis" he cried, falling to his knees. He tried to heal the animal, but what's dead can't be brought back. He was to delirious to search for the goose with a red spot on its head. To him all the dead geese were his boyfriend.

Silently, Liam creeped through the forest checking to see if any enemies were hiding. He sent a vibration through the ground, but picked up no movement. It was almost like everyone had vanished.

"Liam, look over here" Harry called out from the other side of the forest.

The boy hurried over to Harry and was hit with deja vu. The area around Harry looked like the campsite in Germany, where all the life had been drained out of everything. All the trees and animals in the area were dead and decaying. And in the center of the death was a circle, that still had green grass. "Who the hell are these people?" Harry groaned, taking in all the death.

The sobs from Niall was what drew Liam and Harry to the meadow. "I don't know which one is Louis" the blond whimpered, when he saw his boyfriends. The blond had surrounded himself with dead geese, trying to heal them. Each bird suffered the same wound, a bullet through the heart.

Harry's eyes clouded with tears, as he ran to the hill in the clearing. The uncertainty was killing him. He needed to look away from the death. Under the hill all he saw was red. At the bottom of the hill was a red circle drawn in blood with two dead geese as eyes and an unconscious Louis as the smile.

The anger Harry felt could not have been described in words. The enemy had made a smiley face out of dead birds and Louis. "I found him" was all the boy could mutter as he made his way down the hill.

Louis's arm seemed to be bleeding, but other than that Louis seemed perfectly okay. He heard Liam and Niall come to the edge of the hill, each having similar reactions to Harry.

The smiley face would haunt Harry in his dreams.

When Niall reached the bottom of the hill, he had water already floating above Louis. He healed his boyfriend in a matter of seconds. The wounds were nothing deep, and if Niall guessed he'd say Louis was shot in the arm/

Louis came to shortly after he was healed. He sat up, his eyes darting around wildly. Realizing he was safe, Louis laid back down and stared at the bloody scene in front of him. "I can't believe I'm alive."

This perked the interest of the other boys. They all looked at Louis to explain, which he gladly did. "It's weird, but it was almost like whoever was shooting the gun, knew which bird I was. They fired at me first and when they fired I think they purposely aimed at my wing. They didn't want to kill me."

"What happened after you were shot?" Niall asked, interrupting his boyfriend.

"I fell to the ground barely conscious. That was when they shot all the other birds dead, showing me that they spared me. I was in too much pain to move, when two girls walked over to me. One had long black hair and I think she may have been asian. And the other had brown hair. I was still in bird form, when the girl with black hair kneeled next to me and tore off one of my feathers. At that point I changed back into human form and the brown haired girl knocked me out."

Liam agreed that it was strange that Louis was still alive. Whoever this new group was, they were confident in themselves. "Did you see how many people were there?"

"I counted 6, all young like us, but I didn't get a very good look at them. The two girls are the ones who approached me. Liam, I swear they appeared out of nowhere. There was a bright light and then I felt pain in my arm."

"Did you see how close we are to the Freedom Fighters base?"

"It's on the other side of the clearing."

"Did you get a good look at it?"

"I mean I didn't stop to stare, but I didn't see any sign of life."

The sun began to set, forcing the lads to head back to the group. Their petty disagreement was forgotten, as they held hands on the walk back. None of them wanted to have their last memory of their relationship being a stupid argument.

On the walk back, Louis couldn't help but wonder where Zayn was. He found it unlike him to not come to his rescue.

The peaceful walk became filled with soft giggles from Harry of all people. "What's so funny" the blond inquired, only moments ago they thought Louis was dead.

"Just thinking that this is the second time Louis has been shot in the wing. I think it's a sign from the Earth to stop changing into a bird."

"Maybe you're right" Louis agreed, joining in on the laughter. It felt good to laugh away the events that had just happened. It made it seem less bad. He could forget about how close he was to death.

The dozens of campfires alerted the lads that they were near the German group. "Who goes there?" a voice yelled, hidden in the branches of a tree.

"It's Liam and the other Freedom Fighters."

"Thank god" the voice rejoiced. "We all thought you guys were goners. Jacob was about to send a search party to find you."

The rest of the camp was just as excited to see Liam and the others. Jacob went as far as to give Liam an embrace. "Don't run off again like that" he warned, not wanting to be left behind worrying again.

The lads decided to find Zayn, after they retold everything that had happened in the meadow to Han, Jacob, and Malene. The leaders were just as surprised as the lads were to find out Louis was spared. Han told them they needed to be more cautious which meant there would be no more splitting up.

Malene told the lads that Zayn hung out by the fires the whole time they were gone. He did not speak to anybody, and glared at any German who came near him.

Just as Malene told them, they found Zayn sitting cross legged in front of the flames. Instead of glares though, he jumped up and pulled Louis into a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay" he beamed, giving Louis a soft kiss on the cheek. "I was worried sick. Were you hurt at all?"

"Nothing that Niall couldn't fix. Why didn't you come with the lads when they went searching for me?"

Zayn shrugged, and went back to sitting by the fire. "I physically couldn't make myself move. Fear overtook me, and my body just seemed to shut down. I was scared with what the others would find."

"Aww" Louis cooed, scooting over to the fire bender. "I love you."

No response came, but Louis chalked it up to Zayn's anxiety.

A huge meeting was held where the leaders discussed the events of the day and how everyone needed to be careful and accounted for. Liam proudly stood next to the leaders, happy to have the support of his boyfriends. An agreement was formed where 10 people would do night watch instead of the two that was doing it before.

Harry volunteered to do the second shift, needing some to himself to collect his thoughts. The first shift lasted 4 hours and then the boy was shaken awake. He slipped out of his sleeping bag which he shared with Niall. Quietly he zipped up the tent, glancing at the sleeping blond. In the tent next to him was Louis, Liam, and Zayn.

The night was a bit chilly, but he didn't mind. The cold kept him awake, and more alert. He generally stayed by the tents his boyfriends were sleeping in. The other watchers could keep an eye on the other tents.

As he rested in front of the fire by his tent, a scream of agony cut through the air. Harry ran towards the scream and felt his stomach drop when he saw Niall's tent unzipped.

Niall cried out again, crawling out of the tent. He clutched his left arm to his chest and looked at Harry with tears and snot running down his face. "What happened" Harry asked panicky.

The blond took his arm away from his chest to show that his left arm was gone. It was a bloody stump, pooling out red.

The commotion brought over the other watchers and woke up the majority of the camp. Many of them threw up at the sight of Niall holding his stump arm.

Niall seemed to be in too much pain and hysteria to even to attempt to heal his arm. The pain was too much and he grew dizzy from the blood loss.

Another scream left the blond's lips, as he rocked back and forth. Liam emerged from his tent and wiped the sleep from his eyes. His eyes roamed around the scene in front of him, till he found the issue. "Holy shit" he muttered when his eyes landed on Niall.

Unlike Harry, he jumped into action and grabbed the nearest bottle of water. He poured it over the stomp, causing another scream of agony from Niall. "You need to calm down, Niall and heal yourself" Liam pleaded, pouring more water on the wound.

Louis and Zayn came out of the tent next, but hung back by Harry. They knew Liam was the best person to diffuse the situation.

The wound slowly started to close up and Liam requested for more water to be brought to him. Harry went to get the water, wanting to escape the scene and feel somewhat useful. Mostly though he needed to get away from Niall, the guilt was eating him up. He was the one on watch. How could he have let someone into their tent?

When he came back with a handful of water bottles, the blond had regained color back in his face. The tears had stopped falling and he appeared to be calming down. His wrist was slowly regrowing, and if Harry had to guess the process was just as painful as losing the limb.

The blond bit back a cry and squeezed Louis's hand. "You're doing great" Louis encouraged. "Just keep squeezing my hand."

Liam poured the remaining bottles of waters on Niall's hand and let the water work their magic. It took 5 agonizing minutes for Niall's left hand to fully grow back. During that time, Zayn and Harry watched silently. Neither of them knew how to help. Harry looked over at Zayn, but the boy's face was unreadable. "I think I'm going to be sick" Zayn said, covering his mouth. He darted off to the edge of the camp, disappearing from view.

With his new hand, Niall passed out from pain and exhaustion. Liam carried the blond back to him and Harry's tent, but quickly changed plans when he saw the pool of blood in the tent. He laid the blond down in his tent, and gently wrapped in the blankets. Louis cuddled up next to Niall and promised Liam, he would watch over him.

Once Liam thought Niall was safe, he left the tent. "Who was the person watching my campsite tonight?" he fumed.

"Me" Harry answered, stepping forward. He prepared himself to get yelled out, for allowing Niall to get hurt.

"Did you see anybody and hear anything tonight?"

"No Liam, I swear. I would have sensed if somebody new entered our campsite. I stayed by our tents the whole watch."

"I believe you" Liam said. "I know you wouldn't let anybody hurt Niall."

Relief filled Harry, but he still felt guilty. Suddenly he was pulled aside by Liam. "We need to go talk somewhere private" Liam whispered in Harry's ear.

The two boys walked over to Jacob and Malene. "Two attacks in one day" Malene proclaimed when she saw the lads. "This is not good."

Liam looked around to make sure no one was listening. "I think we have a mole in our group" Liam guessed, ignoring the gasp from Harry. "How else can we explain the bad guys knowing which bird Louis was and attacking Niall in the middle of the campsite."

"I think we are missing a big question" Jacob chimed in, making sure to keep his voice down. "Why take Niall's hand? Why take a feather from Louis?"

No one knew how to answer Jacob's question. They knew nothing about his new group, except one of them could control anyone.

"They are probably going to attack you, Zayn and Harry next" Malene noted "which means you three will need to be kept under constant watch."

Liam cracked his knuckles. "Looks like we have a mole to track down."

They broke apart from their meeting, each with the intent of finding out who was giving away their secrets. Malene and Jacob did not think any of their German people were capable of being the mole, but now they weren't so sure.

Liam and Harry huddled together, both trying to come up with possible suspects. They both drew blanks, since they didn't know all the Germans. "Maybe it is Han" Harry hypothesized. "I didn't see him at all tonight when Niall was attacked. Shouldn't he have been there? Why wasn't he at our little meeting?"

"I think you may be onto something, Harry" Liam agreed, patting his boyfriend proudly on the shoulder.


	12. House of Memories

The only people Liam knew he could trust were the lads and Jacob, everybody else was a suspect. His first guess of the mole was Han, but Liam couldn't be sure. He had yet the chance to fully converse with everybody in the German group.

In order to keep the mole from knowing any new information, he stayed by his boyfriends sides for the rest of the journey to their old base. The walk was fine walking through the woods, except for the occasional person tripping over a root. Jacob and Malene kept watchful eyes over their people, looking for any suspicious behavior. They were also watching Han like a hawk, making sure he never left their sight.

When they got close to the clearing, Liam couldn't help but slow down. He didn't want to have to walk through the place where he almost lost Louis.

It was painful walking through the meadow of the dead birds. He heard Louis bite back a whimper, but did nothing to comfort him. To Liam the birds were a reminder that they weren't safe, that they were being watched.

Louis was hit with a sense of deja vu, when he saw the dead animals. The memory came back to when the lads and him had their first mission to the city. He remembered the piles of dead bodies and how Zayn picked him up and covered his eyes. He wished Zayn would be his knight in shining armor again. He didn't want to look at the dead anymore.

Glancing over at Zayn, he saw the boy was hanging back and staring at scenery. "Brutal isn't it" Louis commented, grabbing Zayn's hand. "You want me to pick you up and cover your eyes, till we get out of the meadow?" he said, jokingly. Mostly he said it to get some kind of reaction from his boyfriend. Secretly, he hoped Zayn would sweep him off his feet and carry him out of the field of death.

"Why would you pick me up? You aren't strong enough to carry me" Zayn responded with a puzzled expression.

Louis frowned, turning away from Zayn. As he took another step, he felt a pair of hand wrap around his waist and pick him up. "Since Zayn won't carry you, I will happily take his place" Harry told Louis, holding him bridal style.

"Hey I want to be next" Niall whined, pouting his lip. A quiet squeak left his mouth, when Liam grabbed him around the legs and threw him over his shoulder.

"How's that?" Liam questioned, playfully smacking Niall's butt. "Zayn, want to go over my other shoulder?" he offered, after seeing the boy stand awkwardly to the side.

Shaking his head no, Zayn replied "no, looks like you guys are fine without me."

"Hey don't be like that" Liam muttered out, attempting to grab the boy's arm.

Zayn shook of Liam's hold, turning away from the boys. "I need to go clear my head and be by myself for a bit." He headed to the back of the group, making the others look at each other in concern.

The romantic mood was ruined, so Liam and Harry put down their boyfriends. "What is up with Zayn?" Harry questioned, accidentally stepping on a dead bird. He grimaced slightly, but continued to walk.

"I think it's been the stress of losing Adalard and the possibility of fighting another group with superpowers" Louis guessed, glancing behind to see if he could spot Zayn.

Niall disagreed, "I think he is worried about what we will find at the Freedom Fighters base. Simon was his mentor and father figure for years, and now he could be dead. I don't think Zayn will be able to handle it if Simon is dead."

The others murmured their agreement, beginning to pity Zayn. They thought of their mentors, and prayed that they were safe.

Relief filled Liam when they left the clearing. He welcomed the wooded area that provided shade and gave him a sense of security.

They walked for about 20 more minutes, until Louis informed them they were close to the base. "I'm going to find Zayn" Harry told the others. "He doesn't need to see all this death by himself." The curly haired boy took off to the back of the group, hoping that maybe some one on one time with Zayn would help him.

Louis stood in between Liam and Niall and grabbed their hands, holding onto them for dear life. They walked together to the front of their old camp, and had to hold back tears.

Tents were sprawled out everywhere, with bullet shells scattered across the ground. The smell was hit them next. Their eyes watered up from the smell of dead, decaying flesh.

From behind them, Liam heard Jacob and several other Germans throw up their lunch.

"This was a massacre" Malene cried from behind the boys. She brought her shirt over her nose to try and stop the smell. "From all these bullets you can tell your people put up a good fight, but guns were no match for whoever they went up against."

The further into camp Liam got, the stronger the scent became. No structure was left standing on the base, except for the Freedom Fighter's headquarters. The cafeteria, where they had their victory breakfast, had been obliterated with the wooden chairs laying in pieces on the ground.

The big question for Niall was where all the bodies were. He could smell them, but couldn't find any. He broke away from Liam and Louis, who were busy staring at what used to be the cafeteria.

He allowed his nose to lead the way, following the scent of death and stumbled upon a mass grave. "Oh god" he moaned, falling on his knees heaving up everything in his stomach.

The grave went on for at least a mile, with the bodies in huge unorganized piles.

The bodies were shriveled up and like all the other places the evil group had visited, the life was drained out of them. Niall wasn't able to defiertriate between any of the dead. The bodies were so decayed, they all looked the same. His powers were useless in this situation.

One body caught his eye, it stood up tall on a wooden stake. He rose to his feet and walked towards the corpse in the middle of the other bodies.

Niall recognized it was Simon almost immediately. Unlike the others though, Simon did not have the life sucked out of him. His death seemed to painful from what the blond could tell. He was missing fingers and teeth, and Niall could see what looked like a stab wound in his gut.

He wanted to go closer to his old leader, but Niall did not want to step on the bodies. It would be disrespectful to them and the base they fought so hard to protect. Nailed into Simon's stomach was a drawing of a winky face with the words "be seeing you soon."

From behind him, he heard Liam and Louis approach. "Is that Simon?" Louis asked, his eyes already starting to form tears.

A choked sob left Niall's mouth, giving both lads their answer. "Those bastards" Liam screamed into the sky. "I don't understand how they could kill everybody with no remorse. All Simon wanted to do was fix the world, and have the world go back to the way it used to be. He didn't deserve a death like this, nobody on the freedom fighters did."

The three boys mourned the loss of their leader, holding each other. The Germans scrounged the rest of the base looking for clues and useable supplies. They did so quietly and made sure to not deface anything. They believed the dead deserved to be respected.

Louis wiped away his tears and jumped up. "Where are the other mentors? Do you think Caroline is somewhere in that mass grave?"

"No, she isn't here, neither is Harry's mentor John. Remember they were stationed in New York to try and round up survivors" Liam answered, giving some hope to Louis, that Caroline was alive.

"Do you think they know what happened here?" Niall asked, standing next to Louis.

"They probably know something is wrong, since Simon stopped picking up the phone. We will have to call them today and tell them everything that happened" Liam said thoughtfully. He remembered that his phone was broken, probably somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. "I am going to go search for a phone" he told his boyfriends, stalking away from the grave. If he got in touch with Caroline, they could meet up with her and form an even bigger army.

Niall and Louis decided to stay with Simon and made it their goal to get him off the stake. They wanted to give him a proper burial, like Adalard. They cautiously stepped over the corpses, trying their best to avoid squishing them. Gently, Niall lowered Simon off of the stake into Louis's awaiting arms.

He snatched the paper off of the man's chest and crumbled it up. Knowing Simon, Niall guessed he would want to be buried with his men. The two boys laid their old leader next to a pile of dead soldiers and climbed out of the pit, trying to figure out how they were going to bury the whole army.

When they emerged, the Germans were surrounding them with grim faces. "They want to help you bury the bodies" Jacob informed the boys. "Is that okay?"

"Of course" Niall responded, a sense of happiness washing over him. He may have lost one team, but it seemed he was gaining another. "Thank you" he said looking over at the Germans.

Once Niall gave his approval, they started to shovel dirt into the graves. Malene, Jacob, and Han each lended a hand, handing out shovels to their people. Louis and Niall soon joined in, wanting to lay their soldiers to rest.

Liam guessed the first place to look for a phone would be in Simon's tent. As he walked toward the tent, an uneasy feeling washed over the boy. He looked over his shoulder and saw the some of the German group grabbing what looked like shovels. He didn't know why he had such a bad feeling. "Have any of you guys seen Harry and Zayn?" he asked.

One of them answered, looking away from his current task. "Last I saw they were both heading towards the building."

Of course Harry would take Zayn there, Liam thought. It was not only the remaining building that survived the attack on the base, but it was the place where Zayn and Simon did a majority of his training. Liam also remembered the building was where Simon had the interrogation room and the office where he met with the Freedom Fighter generals. He knew he could find a phone there as well.

The closer he got to the building, the more the bad feeling built up in his chest. As he went to open the door, he heard a scream of pain from Zayn and then heard a body hit the ground.

The door smacked against the wall as Liam took off running to where he heard his boyfriend. "Zayn" he yelled, approaching the interrogation room. "Where are you guy?" he asked, when the room was empty.

He went to turn around, when the butt of a gun collided roughly with the back of his head. Liam's vision went black, as he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

**********

The sun beat down on ground, causing heat to rise off of grass. "It's too hot" Natalie complained, sitting up from the lounge chair.

"I agree" Trish said, with a smirk on her face. She moved her legs and couldn't help, but groan when her legs stuck to the chair.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Maybe you're hot Trish because you are wearing all black."

"No, that can't be it" she countered, staring down at her black shirt and shorts. "Peter, can you force the Freedom Fighter soldiers to hold an umbrella over me?"

"And me" Natalie yelled, raising her hand like she was in school.

Peter shook his head no. "They can hold the umbrellas once they are done cleaning the pool. Remember only one task at a time for them. Besides a nice refreshing pool will help you escape from the heat." Sometimes he wanted to use his powers to make his friends stop complaining, but in the end he always stopped himself. He made a vow he would never use his powers on his team, well they were more like family to him.

"I guess I can wait" Natalie responded, pushing her sunglasses further onto her face. Her pale skin was already starting to burn, but she knew Trish could fix that with her new power. She tied her brown hair back into a ponytail and went back to watching Rebecca draw.

Rebecca was in the middle of adding modifications to their pool. On the page already drawn was a waterslide and a diving board. Her hair was braided back to try and keep it under control, but since her hair was so long the braid didn't do much good. "What else should I add?" she questioned moving her long braid away from her butt.

"Shirtless guys with abs" Natalie answered, wiggling her eyebrows at Peter.

"Ewww Natalie, stop rubbing your straightness in my face. Give me some girls in bikinis" Trish requested.

"No, I vote for guys with abs" Evan added, earning a high five from Natalie, who he was sitting next too.

Shaking her head no, Rebecca couldn't help but laugh. "I am too ace for this bull shit." She finished up with her drawing, and stood up going over to the side of the pool. Her hand reached inside the sketch pad and she pulled out the waterslide. The blue slide came to life, standing over 20 feet in the air.

Next she went to other end of the pool and pulled out of the diving board. "How's that?" she asked indicating to her work.

"Meh, still think the slide should be black like my soul" Trish joked, swatting her black hair out of her face. "Is the pool almost ready? I am melting over here."

Peter, who was trying to sleep, groaned in annoyance. His eyes glared at the soldiers fixing up the pool. "Finish up cleaning this pool or I will make you cut out your tongue."

The four soldiers worked faster, getting out the last of the leaves and dead bugs in record time. When the pool was completely clean, one of the soldiers reported "It is ready sir."

"Good now each of you grab an umbrella and block out the sun" Peter commanded, laying back down on the chair. "Can I sleep now?" he requested to Trish and Natalie, since they were the ones that always bothered him.

"For now" Natalie said, jumping into the pool. She made sure to jump in front of Peter to get him as wet as possible. A huff of anger left Peter's mouth, as he pulled the towel over his head.

Evan got in next, with Trish following after she put on her black bathing suit.. The water was refreshing from Florida's heat. The three splashed each other, but eventually Trish and Evan teamed up to dunk Natalie. They kept pushing her under, until Rebecca put on her mom voice.

After that the three people in the pool calmed down. Once Rebecca knew she would be splashed, she put her legs in the water. She threw her head back, soaking up the sun. "Watching over Liam and his team is exhausting."

"We aren't the ones doing the most work though, Tierra is the one who is undercover in their group" Evan retorted, submerging himself under the water.

"Boy" Natalie yelled, splashing Evan when he came up for air. "You don't even have a power. We all do more work than you."

Evan choose to ignore that comment and continued to swim around the pool. The waterslide seemed to be calling his name, so he slid down the slide headfirst. When his face smacked against the water he nearly lost his glasses. Luckily for him, he had fast reflexes and Natalie was nowhere near him to steal his glasses.

The girl was too busy trying to wake to Peter to try and take Evan's glasses. She splashed water on the snoozing boy, and soon Trish joined in. Rebecca watched with a humorous expression, but made no move to help her sleeping friend.

After much pestering from Natalie and Trish, Peter finally got in the water. They relaxed in the pool while Rebecca drew her team in her second sketch book.

They knew today was the day Tierra would be coming back. Her time undercover was coming to a close, as they moved onto their next phase of the plan. "I feel like we should come up with a name for our team" Natalie said, ruining the relaxing moment.

Peter swam over to the girl. "I already told you, we are called Peter and the sidekicks."

"No it needs to be something cool and evil."

Peter laughed at his friend, getting out of the pool. He ordered his mind control soldiers to dry him off. They patted him dry with towels and brought him over a chair. "How about Doom Squad?"

"Maybe, we will have to see if it sticks" Rebecca answered, scooting over to steal some of Peter's shade. Her skin was beginning to burn and unlike Natalie she had no sunglasses.

"You know Peter you are lucky you can't burn" Natalie commented. "All of us here are too white to handle this sun."

Trish gasped dramatically, smacking her hands against the water. "Excuse me, but I am not white I am asian."

"And besides just because I am black does not mean I can't burn" Peter correct, but he knew that Natalie was just joking. The girl may have blond moments, but even she wasn't that stupid.

"Can I play with our new toy again" Natalie requested, batting her eyelashes at Peter. "He is so cute and I want to make him act out more embarrassing tasks."

"You read my mind" the boy responded, commanding one of the soldiers to bring over the requested prisoner.

Looking up at the sky, Evan realized how late it was getting. He quickly exited the pool and began to dry off, throwing on his shirt.

Evan excused himself from his friends, to check on their army. He always checked in on their training around this time. Even though he had no power like the others, he was still the general over their army and was important to the mission.

Not only did he need to check on his soldiers, but he also need to see how far Tierra was. He needed to make sure Tierra was safely on her way to their current position. If not, he would need to send a rescue team to her location.

While the villains waited at the pool, Trish decided it was a good time to work on her tan. As much as she loved torturing prisoners, today she just really wanted to relax.

After what seemed like hours to Natalie and Peter, the guard brought over the desired prisoner to the pool. "What should we do with him?" Peter asked evilly to his friend, not being able to hide his excitement. That was one thing Natalie and him had in common, they loved violence and causing destruction. When they were alone, the two always caused the most damage.

Natalie and Peter whispered to each other, while Trish tanned on the sidewalk.

"Are you going to make him kiss the soldiers again?" Rebecca inquired, because if that was the case she would leave.

"No, we are going to do something more brutal" the boy answered, a grin spreading across his face. Natalie giggled like a mad woman, pulling up a chair so she could watch the show.

Rebecca debated on whether or not she should get her scolding voice ready. She had appointed herself as mom of the group and was the only one who could control her two friends. After some thought, she decided to let Peter and Natalie have their fun and went back to drawing.

Peter pointed to the four mind controlled soldiers and told them to kneel. The prisoner, begged and pleaded to the evil group for them to have mercy. If Peter and Natalie were normal they would have felt bad for him, but since they weren't they started laughing like school girls. "Shut up" Peter yelled, instanting making the prisoner go quiet. "You will kill each of these soldiers, but you will make it slow and painful. Do you understand Zayn?"

"Yes" Zayn answered, his eyes glazing over. He stalked towards the first soldier, lighting his hand on fire.


	13. Puppet and Puppeteer

The ringing in Zayn's ear, alrted the boy that the screaming from the soldiers had finally stopped. On the ground lay the dead soldiers, each burned to a crisp, almost unrecognizable. He blinked away the glaze in his eyes, and stared down at the murder he committed.

As his eyes filled with tears, he heard laughter come from Natalie and Peter. "Nice work" Peter congratulated, giving the boy a clap on the shoulder. "You are quite an entertaining fellow. I knew I picked the right boy to kidnap."

"Let's make him do it again" the girl begged with a mischievous grin.

Peter was about to agree, when Rebecca interrupted. "I think he should go back to his cell, he looks exhausted. Besides, we need to get ready for Tierra's arrival. You know how much she loves making a grand entrance"

"That is true, Zayn will need all his energy for tomorrow" Peter agreed, watching Trish turn over on her towel so she could tan her back.

"I totally forgot about tomorrow" Natalie gushed, locking arms with Rebecca. "Zayn will definitely need all the rest he can get."

Zayn's head shot up. "What are you going to do with me?"

"You'll see" Natalie giggled, winking at the distressed boy. "But since you did so good today, we shall let you see your friend."

The boy wanted to blast Natalie's smirk right off her face, but he had no control over his actions. He was a puppet and Peter was the puppeteer. "Follow me" the mind controller ordered. "You may not speak or attempt to escape or hurt any of my people, while we walk towards the prison."

On the inside Zayn yelled in protest, begging his body to fight against Peter's words. But his body was too weak to fight against the control. Reluctantly he followed behind Peter. He glanced behind and saw Rebecca and Natalie packing up their pool supplies. His eyes met Trish's brown ones, as she waved him goodbye and sent him a kiss.

He was surprised when he wasn't taken to his usual cell. The two boys walked to the back of the makeshift prison, where there was a large cell, twice the size of Zayn's. "You will not use your powers or try escaping" Peter told him, handcuffing his hands together. Zayn wanted to roll his eyes, but he knew doing that would anger the mind controller.

The door opened once Peter unlocked it with his keys. Inside the cell, sitting on the bench was Paul. Zayn went to speak, but realized he couldn't. He would not be able to say a word until Peter told him to do so.

Roughly, he was pushed into the cell and the door was slammed shut behind him. Zayn pointed at his mouth, trying to communicate to the mind controller to give him his voice back.

Peter stared coldly at the firebender through the bars of the cell. "Fine you can speak, but do not be loud. Tierra will want silence for her sleep" he said, turning away from the prison.

Once the villain was no longer in sight Zayn and Paul embraced, each happy the other was alive and well.

"As happy as I am that you are alive, why the hell are you here?" Paul asked, breaking away from the hug. "Are the others okay?"

"I think they are, but it's been awhile since I saw them."

"How long have you been here?"

Zayn leaned against the wall, trying to figure out how long he had been prisoner. "They got me when me and lads landed in America. On the boat ride here, one of our new friend's died because of Peter. When the boat docked, I went into the woods to clear my head. I thought I was alone, but then Peter and Natalie appeared, followed by the rest of their group.'

'I was forced to go with them and the shapeshifter was left behind to take my place.I tried fighting back, but no matter how hard I tried to break from Peter's control, it was no use. They took me back to their base, as I got to watch Tierra change into me. Since, I have been here I been trying to figure out their plan. It makes no sense for them to leave Tierra to pretend to be me, unless she was sent to kill the boys.

The world was a cruel place Paul realized as he sat down next to the boy. The lads never seemed to catch a break. "Do you know why did they attacked the Freedom Fighter's base?" Zayn asked, wanting to change the subject.

"I believe I know the answer to your question, Zayn. They attacked my base to find the Fearsome Five's bodies."

"What" Zayn gasped, his voice coming out louder than expected. Paul quickly shushed him, he did not want Peter to come back. "Did they make you lead them to the bodies?"

"Yes, under Peter's mind control I took them to the graves. Some of few surviving soldiers and I were forced to dig up their bones and give them to Trish. Do you know what Trish's power is?"

"Can she bring back the dead?"

"No, what she can due to worse. Whoever she touches, she gets their power. She wears a necklace of bones from the Fearsome Five and whoever's bone she touches she will have their ability."

Zayn sprang up, and began pacing the room. "Of course" he groaned, touching his hand. "When I first arrived here, Trish held me down while Natalie removed one of my finger nails. I could not figure out why they do such a random thing, but now it makes sense. Trish can now use my power."

"And she is about to get even more powerful" Paul guessed, a sense of hopelessness washed over him. "I believe they sent Tierra to gather up body parts from the other boys."

All Zayn wanted to do right now punch a hole through the cell door and burn down the camp. Things were going from bad to worse, and Zayn was trapped as a puppet to the bad guys. "Have you figured out their other abilities?" Paul asked, trying to snap the boy out of his panicked trance. They needed to gather as much information as possible.

"Rebecca, the one with long hair, can make her drawings come to life. I think she has more abilities than that though. And Natalie is the one who drains the life out of people and surrounding area. When her and Peter kidnapped me, she drew the life out of the trees and used that energy to make a portal which brought to here to their camp."

The man tried to think of something hopeful to Zayn, but nothing could come to mind. Everything about their situation was hopeless. And with each passing second the bad guys got even closer to winning. "How did they get you?" Zayn inquired, finally sitting down.

"Natalie and Trish found me in the bunker hiding and thought I could be useful. I was knocked unconscious and brought here. After I served my purpose of finding the Fearsome Five, I was left to rot in the cell.

"Did they take Simon as well?"

The mention of his friend's name brought Paul to a sobbing mess. "They killed him" he cried, not being able to control his tears.

"How do you know? They could have lied."

As much as Paul wanted to lie and tell Zayn that his friend was still alive, he stopped himself. This was no longer child's play, this was a fight for the world. "I saw his body being strung up like a scarecrow" Paul admitted, ignoring the tears forming in Zayn's eyes. "They mocked me by forcing me to throw all the Freedom Fighter bodies in a mass grave."

Rage filled Zayn as he screamed at the top of his lungs. "You bastards" he yelled, not caring if they heard him. Nobody could kill Simon, the person who raised and believed in him, and not pay for it.

He flicked his hands trying to ignite a flame, but his body wouldn't listen to him. He would just have to make due without his powers. Letting his anger fuel him, Zayn searched the cell for a weapon.

The wooden bench was only usable thing. He stomped his foot down the bench, breaking the wood in half. Picking up the two pieces, he ran over to the door and began beating on the rusted bars.

He was letting the pain of losing Simon power him. With each hit he was closer to getting out of the prison and getting his revenge. Paul quickly joined in, breaking off the other piece of wood from the bench. Before he joined in with hitting the door, Paul stopped dead in his tracks.

The pillow on his bed sat on the ground ripped in half with cotton sticking out from the center. An idea formed in his head as he stuck the cotton in his ears. He may have found a way to defeat Peter and his deadly words. He gave Zayn some cotton from the pillow as well, to try and block out Peter's voice. He didn't know if it would work, but it was worth a shot.

They both ignored the loud noise they were making, they were going to get out of the cell even if it killed them.

The hallways leading up to their cell light up with torches, as the villains stormed over. Trish lead the group, her hands both covered in fire. She smiled over at Zayn, showing off her new power.

"Drop your weapons" Peter commanded, safely in front of the locked cell doors. Not even the cotton could stop the mind controller, as Zayn dropped the wood on the ground. "Take the cotton out from your ears and kneel down on the ground."

Both Paul and Zayn did as they were told, each surprised the cotton had not worked. When Peter deemed it safe, he unlocked the cell door. "Is it not common courtesy to your kidnappers to keep quiet at night. Even villains need to get some sleep. Tierra just journeyed back from your group and was hoping to get a peaceful sleep. I thought I made it clear that you would not try and escape."

"I wasn't trying to escape, I was trying to kill you" Zayn spat, putting as much venom into his voice as he could.

"I believe we need to teach our prisoners a lesson" Natalie taunted. "Peter and I were rewarding you for your good behavior and this is the thanks we get."

"For once I agree with you" Rebecca chimed in, pulling out her sketch pad. "I can draw whatever torture device you want."

"Or I can try out my new powers on them" Trish added, shooting a small puddle of water into Zayn's face.

"As long as the punishment is quiet I don't care" Peter yawned, rubbing his sleepy eyes. "I am going back to sleep, just make sure Zayn is still alive in the morning."

"What about Paul?" Natalie asked.

"You can kill him, he is not useful anymore."

Natalie squealed happily, running over to the man. "I call torturing Paul."

"Good because I wanted Zayn" Trish said, grabbing the boy by the hair.

After a bit more debate, Rebecca joined Trish to help punish Zayn. Rebecca drew some restraints for the boy, and quickly tied up the prisoner. They dragged him to an empty cell to give Natalie some privacy.

Natalie though, could not start her torture, without her torture buddy. She borrowed some of Rebecca's rope and tied up the man. Once she thought he was secure enough, she ran off to find Evan.

It didn't take her long to find him. Evan was asleep in his tent, somehow able to sleep through Zayn's screaming. Cautiously she shook him awake, knowing he hated waking up early.

When Evan finally stirred, his hand shot out and grabbed Natalie's arm, squeezing it harshly. "Why are you waking me up?" he growled, tightening his grip on the girl.

"Let go of my arm, you're hurting me" she whined. The sleepy boy loosened his grip, waiting for the girl to give her reason for waking him up at such an ungodly hour. "So Peter gave us the okay to kill Paul in whatever way we want."

"Why can't we wait till morning to kill him?" Evav groaned, finally letting go of his friend's hand.

"Because I want to do it now, they need to be punished for trying to escape."

Evan sat up when he heard they tried to escape. He couldn't believe how disrespectful they were for trying to break out of their cell. This was the thanks they get for providing Paul food and shelter for the past couple week, not on Evan's watch. "Give 5 minutes to get dressed and get my tools. Then I want you to tell me exactly what they did."

Nodding her head, the girl waited outside the tent, playing with the grass on the ground. The moon was out tonight, but not enough it give off much light. She heard the tent unzip and watched with a smile as her friend emerged holding a bag of knives and other painful devices. "Let's teach him to never escape again."

********

Pain was what woke Liam up. Leaning up, he noticed his shirt was sticky with blood and that his right hand was throbbing. The blood trailed down his right arm leading up to his hand where he saw he was missing his middle finger.

All Liam could do was stare at his injury, any slight movement made his body explode in pain. Blood squirted out of the hole where his finger once was. Liam couldn't concentrate long enough to try and figure out what had happened.

He could not remember how he ended up in the interrogation room or why he was unconscious. The only thing he decided on was he needed to find Niall. The blond could make the pain go away.

Slowly he got to his feet, trying not to move his right hand in the slightest. When he finally stood, he walked towards the hallway. He suddenly stopped though, when he saw the lower half of Harry sticking out from the corner of the desk. The boy was missing both shoes, and had blood surrounding his feet.

"Harry" he yelled, completely forgetting about his injury. He pushed the desk aside and was filled with relief. Harry was still breathing, but he seemed to be missing a toe. "Get up" Liam said, shaking his boyfriend gently.

He noticed Harry had a large gash on his head, but Liam would worry about that later. A groan of anguish left Harry's mouth as he opened his eyes. "Why does my foot hurt like hell?" he croaked, turning his head towards Liam.

"Your big toe has been cut off."

"Makes sense" he gritted, sitting up.

Seeing Harry triggered Liam's memory, as he remembered he came in the building looking for Zayn and Harry. "Where's Zayn?" he asked, already on his feet. He looked around for an unconscious Zayn.

"Stop" Harry snapped, causing Liam to jump. "He isn't here. He was the one who knocked me out and probably the one who cut off my toe and your finger."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Actually it does. He had been acting weird the second we landed in this goddamn country. Zayn was the mole, and he got whatever he needed from us."

"No, you're wrong that wasn't Zayn. He would never betray us."

"He wouldn't do it willingly, but we both know the bad guys have a mind controller and quite possibly a shapeshifter. They could have taken Zayn weeks ago."

Liam shook his head no. "I would have noticed if he was taken."

"Actually you wouldn't" Harry argued, not caring if his next words were going to hurt his boyfriend. "You were too busy with your new group and I was too busy being mad to you to notice. We were both focused on other things, and not the people we care about. We neglected Zayn, and he is probably dead because of us."

"Shut up" Liam cried, covering his ears. "You don't know if he was actually taken. He is still alive. And if he has been take we will save him."

Harry stayed quiet, even though he wanted to disagree. He knew his argument would be shot down by Liam, so the boy bit his tongue. "Let's find Niall and get him to heal us. I think both of us can think better without the constant agony of a lost finger and toe."

Liam set off to find the blond, leaving Harry in the abandoned building. He didn't like having to leave his boyfriend, but Liam had no other option.

The blond was in the midst of burying the Freedom Fighters, when a bloody Liam ran into the clearing. "Niall, I need you" he screamed, before turning back in the direction of the building. He would not let Harry be by himself for long.

Dropping the shovel, the blond and Louis took off running about Liam. Both were filled with worry as to why Liam was covered in blood. The Germans were not far behind them, each voicing their concern to each other.

Liam stood outside the building, and waved Niall to come inside. Once in the building, the blond was led down the hallway to the injured Harry.

The blond kept quiet while he healed, he would save his questions until the end. Mending missing body parts took time and lots of water.

Two gallons of water later, Niall successfully made a new finger for Liam and toe for Harry. Once Niall knew everything was healed he asked "what the hell happened and where is Zayn?"

The two boys waited to answer the question until the whole German army had been assembled. Liam quickly told them a recap of everything him and Harry had discovered. "There is no need to worry about the mole anymore since it was Zayn or whoever was pretending to be him the whole time" Liam said, finishing Harry and him's discovery. "Our new plan is to contact our other base in New York and attempt to meet up with them. We are going to need all the people we can get to take on this new threat. Anybody have any objections or suggestions?"

Han, Malene, and Jacob stayed silent, each waiting for Liam to tell them what to do next. "We need to try and find a working phone, so I can try and call Caroline."

"I shall assign my people to find one" Malene volunteered, turning to her group of Germans.

"My group and I can finish filling the mass grave" Han offered, awaiting for Liam's approval. The earthbender granted Han his wish and sent him off to finish burying the dead.

"Jacob your group and mine will get all the weapons they can find and set up watches. We cannot afford to allow the villains to sneak up on us anymore" Liam instructed, taking on the role of the leader. The Germans needed guidance and he was willing to step up to the plate.

The meeting adjourned with everyone carrying out their required tasks. A working phone was found in the rubble and given to Liam, who started to charge it.

When the phone screen finally lit up Liam could see there were over 100 missed calls from Caroline. With his boyfriends surrounding him, Liam hit the recall button.

The phone only rang twice when the woman picked up the phone. "You better have a good reason for not picking up in over 2 weeks" the woman scolded, putting on her mom voice.

Liam took a deep breath before he broke the news to Caroline. "Hey Caroline it's Liam." The line went dead signaling for the boy to continue. "I have some very bad news, are you sitting down?"

"Oh god" Caroline sighed, "Simon's dead isn't he?"

"Yes, but there is a way to avenge him and save Paul. You want to help?"

"Is that even a question, just give me a place and I will meet you there."

"Good because we are going to need all the help we can get."


	14. Sweet Bliss of Death

The whole journey to New York Liam could not keep his mind off of Zayn. Not only had he allowed Peter to take him, but he didn't even notice Zayn was gone. He could only imagine the horror his boyfriend was suffering, and it was all his fault.

The other lads weren't much better, each of them feeling their own guilt. But the pain made them stronger and gave them a drive to kill the people who took Zayn.

They traveled on a large piece of concrete that Liam moved with his powers. The Germans and the four boys made it to New York by nightfall. On their journey, they continually called Caroline to give her updates on their position. She anxiously awaited their arrival, excited to see Louis.

Even though New York had been destroyed during the Fearsome Five take over, some skyscrapers still stood. Some were so large they hid in the clouds. The sight was breathtaking, but the lads were too concerned with Zayn to even care.

The Germans stared at the city in wonder and awe, not having seen such huge buildings. No skyscrapers survived the downfall of Earth in Germany.

Liam slowed down the piece of concrete they were riding on, as they approached New York. In the distance Louis caught a glimpse of lanterns and torches. He pointed to the light and Liam turned the concrete towards the direction.

The concrete they were riding came to a stop when Liam saw Caroline waving at them. Before he could say a word, Louis ran towards his old mentor screaming her name. She opened her arms and was engulfed in a hug by Louis. "I'm so happy you are okay" he whispered to her, tightening his grip on the woman. "I don't know what I would have done if I lost you."

"Everything is going to be okay" she promised, rubbing the boy's back. "Nothing is going to split us up again."

By this time the rest of Louis's group had caught up with him. Harry, Niall, and Liam led the Germans to Caroline, each staying silent to allow Louis to have his moment with his mentor.

When she felt the eyes of the Germans on her, Caroline broke away from the hug. "Hello" she greeted, walking over to Louis's new team. "I am Caroline, the leader of the New York Freedom Fighters. If you follow me I shall take you to our camp. You all look hungry."

The Germans murmured in agreement and followed the woman. They followed her into the entrance of the city. Her camp was in an abandoned football stadium. The turf area had over a dozen fires cooking some sort of stew. The seats in the arena had been discarded and were replaced with beds. There were no tents to separate people, everyone slept together in the stadium. The roof of the football field protected them from the weather and the harsh sun.

"After dinner I want you boys to tell me everything that has happened since we last saw each other" Caroline told the lads, before going over to her generals. She needed to set up enough beds for all the Germans to sleep on.

None of the boys spoke as they sat down around the fire, their minds were still on Zayn. The silence began to take its toll on the boys, as Louis stood up to find Caroline. He wanted to be with his second mom. Harry eventually got up, wanting to explore and clear his head. The silence was killing him and made Zayn's absence even more apparent.

That left Niall and Liam, who scooted next to each other. "I'm sure Zayn is alive" Liam said, trying to set the blond at ease.

"He could be alive, but what have they done to him. Each day he is there they could be hurting him."

"We can't think like that Niall."

The rest of their meal was eaten in silence as Niall pondered on Liam's words. All this worrying wasn't helping Zayn. The only thing that could save his boyfriend was attacking the bad guys, and breaking him out in whatever prison they are holding him in. As the flames danced on the wood in front of him, Niall swallowed the rest of his worry and replaced it with a drive for blood.

Harry walked up the stairs of the stadium to the top part of it. He leaned over the railing, entranced by how small everyone looked. He couldn't imagine regular people sitting up so high to watch a football game. How could they see anything?

It was quiet up here, and Harry could finally have some time to himself. He felt as though he let down Zayn. He sunk down in one of the seats, and began to mediate.

In the midst of his meditation, he heard the chair next to him get pushed down. He turned his head to see who dared disturb his alone time.

Next to Harry, sat his mentor John. The man chuckled at the boy. "Still the same old Harry. I remember when you would get frustrated, you would run off to be alone and sulk by yourself."

"Can you blame me? My boyfriend has been kidnapped and I have no idea where he is."

"This isn't your responsibility Harry. You don't need to take on all this guilt alone. You need to remember you are still so young."

"It just feels like we are wasting so much time. I should be out there searching for Zayn, instead of sleeping in a comfy bed and having meals prepared for me."

"Stop punishing yourself, Harry. This is not healthy. You cannot take on this new evil group without the help of your other boyfriends. Besides now you have us, the Freedom Fighters. I promise you in the morning we will set out to find Zayn. And pretty soon all this worry will be forgotten."

John expected Harry to get angry and argue, but the boy surprised him. Harry leaned against the man's shoulder and confessed "I love you, to me you are the father I never got."

"Harry you have been my son since the day I was assigned to train you."

********

Zayn's throat was raw from all his screaming. No matter how much he begged or pleaded, Natalie and Evan would not let up on their torture. If anything his pleads seemed to fuel them even more.

At first when the pain began, Natalie covered Zayn's mouth to try and keep him from waking up Tierra. But Evan and Natalie thrive on causing others agony, so eventually they tore off the tape and let the boy's screams be heard.

Never in his life did Zayn imagine he would feel pain like this. Zayn wished he could just die. He hated being held captive, and being so useless. In all honesty he wanted the pain to end. He could only imagine what was happening to Paul.

Zayn fell unconscious at some point during the torture. When he woke up, he was tied down to a bed, only being able to move his head. He quickly realized he was not alone. From the corner of the room, he saw Natalie and Evan leaning against the wall getting yelled at by Peter. Zayn opened his mouth to yell, but was stopped by Peter. "You will shut up." The boy turned on his heels and scolded the two villains in the room. "I thought I told you to be quiet last night. I did not hear a single peep from Paul."

"Well that is because Trish cut out his tongue" Natalie argued, crossing her arms. Zayn felt bile rise up in throat. A whimper left his mouth as he thought of Paul.

He regretted making the sound when he saw Peter's face snap towards his. "Bite off your tongue" he ordered, his face showed no emotion.

His teeth bit down on his tongue, causing his body to convulse in pain. His mouth continued to bite down, no matter how hard his body protested. Tears swelled up in his eyes, but it was no use. His tongue came loose, while his mouth flooded with blood.

The swerved tongue was spit out of his mouth with a mouthful of blood. Zayn hoped he would drown in his pain and blood. But the villains had other plans. "We need to turn him over or he is going to choke" Evan informed, undoing the rope around Zayn.

"Or we can let Trish heal him" Natalie suggested. "Then we can make him suffer again."

Instantly Evan let go of the rope and went to retrieve Trish. While untied Zayn finally got to see the rest of his body. Slowly he leaned up, coughing up another mouthful of blood. What he saw made him almost pass out again. "Admiring my handiwork?" Natalie asked with a humored tone.

Even Peter agreed the girl did a good job. "Are you still mad at me Peter for being too loud?" Natalie asked, hanging her head low in shame. She hated when her friend was mad at her.

"I can never stay mad at you."

Zayn leaned over and threw up when he saw his mangled legs. In some parts of his legs, he could see the bone. He was missing 7 toes and all the skin on his legs was skinned off. The boy's arms were a different story. The left arm was missing above the elbow and his right arm was twisted backwards.

"Personally his chest is my favorite" Natalie said, pulling off Zayn's shirt. "He screamed the most during this part."

The memory soon hit him of Natalie and Evan pouring acid on his chest. His nipples were seared off and he swore he could see part of his ribs. He laid down his head and prayed again for death. The pain and humiliation was becoming too much.

The agony began to fade, and Zayn hoped that meant he was passing away. The coldness in his chest started to warm up as the blood began to flow again. He looked down and saw his chest was closing up and the acid burns were disappearing.

The realization quickly hit him that he was being healed. Hovering over his body was Trish, her hands were covered in water. She healed Zayn till he was as good as new. "You can thank your little boyfriend for my new healing power" she said once she finished fixing Zayn up.

She pulled off her necklace and showed Zayn the mangled hand that once belonged to Niall. "I can assure he screamed and cried like a little girl when he lost his hand" Trish taunted, waving the hand in front of the boy's face.

With his tongue back, Zayn cursed up a storm, yelling every vile thing he could think of at his captors. Peter and the others seemed amused by his actions. "I hate you" he screamed, sitting up now that he was no longer tied down. Everyone in the room realized their mistake, but it was too late. Zayn broke from his restraints and narrowed his eyes at his captors.

Before Peter could open his mouth, Zayn shot a fireball at the mind controller. The flames hit Peter square in the chest and the force of it smacked him against the wall. Peter groaned in pain, his head rolling back in a daze. Trish darted over to her fallen friend and stood protectively in front of him.

Zayn's whole body light on fire, as he turned his attention to the people who caused him pain the whole night. "Your turn" he screamed, running towards Natalie.

With his fiery hands, he attempted to grab the girl, but at the last minute she ducked out of the way. She quickly pushed Evan out of the room, since the boy had no powers to defend himself. "Get Tierra and Rebecca" she ordered, slamming the cell door shut. With the door shut, Zayn had no escape.

A wave of fire hit the cell where Evan was just standing. He took off running to get the girls to assist in taking down Zayn.

Natalie whiped her head around to Zayn, her eyes turning a bright green. She raised her hand in the air emitting a green glow from her hand.

All at once Zayn's whole body screamed in agony. He felt his body being drained of energy and life. He fell to his knees, and his flames began to dim. His tiny glimmer of up was about to be destroyed. "Just kill me" he begged, hoping the girl would take pity on him.

"Now why would I do that?" she asked, closing her hand. The green faded from her eyes and Zayn fell to the ground exhausted. His body was too tired to move, or use his powers.

While Natalie dealt with Zayn, Trish had successfully healed up the mind controller. By the time Zayn was on the ground, Peter was up and stalking towards the boy.

"You are so going to regret trying to kill me" Peter barked, punching the energy drained Zayn in the face. "I am going to make you kill everybody you love."

Tierra, Rebecca, and Evan soon came running up followed by some of their army. "Are you okay?" Rebecca asked, worry written all over her face.

"We are because of Trish's new powers and Natalie's quick thinking" Peter answered, going over to the cell doors. The bars were melted together from Zayn's fire blast, meaning they would not be leaving the prison anytime soon.

Rebecca seemed to read Peter's mind and pulled out her sketch book. "Don't worry I'll get you out" she promised, already beginning to draw.

Trish stared down at Zayn with an uncaring gaze. She brought her black high heeled boot down on his stomach and repeatedly kicked the boy. She didn't stop till Zayn started to cough up blood. When she satisfied herself enough, she sat down crossed legged in the cell and began playing with a little ball of fire.

The green still glowed from Natalie's hand. "Rebecca, I think I can get us out." She blast the green from her hand, using the energy she took from Zayn to make a portal through the prison bars. The portal was the same color green of Natalie's eyes.

Peter went through it first and appeared on the other side of the prison cell. Trish went through next, but not before sending one final kick at Zayn. Natalie grabbed Zayn by the hair and dragged him into her green portal.

Once on the other side, Evan engulfed Natalie and Trish in a hug. The other villains joined in, each talking about how worried they were for each other.

"How can you be so nice to each other, but kill and attack my friends?" Zayn asked, staring at the villains.

"That is a story for another day" Tierra answered, breaking away from the others. She sat down next to Zayn and placed her hand on his back. "Aren't you going to ask me about your little boyfriends? Don't you want to know if I hurt them?"

Zayn choose to remain silent. He knew the girl was trying to get a rise out of him. "Do you know your boyfriends didn't even notice you were replaced? It's because they don't care about you. They left you out of everything, Zayn. I don't even think they realized you've been kidnapped. Maybe they just think you betrayed them. They are not coming to save you."

"Shut up" Zayn screamed, fighting hard not to cry. He couldn't show the villains weakness, not now. "You don't know anything."

Tierra shrugged. "You forget I was pretending to be you for weeks, I know a lot more than you think I do." To get her statement across Tierra morphed into Zayn, staring at him with a humorous expression. "Next time I see your boyfriend's, I won't hesitate to kill them."

"Not if they kill you first" Zayn shot back, earning a slap from Trish. Her nails were long and scratched his face, but it was worth it.

The villains began whispering amongst themselves, which made Zayn worry. He instantly regretted his words. "Let's show Zayn what happens when people try to cross us" Rebecca suggested, brisking leaving the room.

There was a dragging sound, sounding almost like a body being pulled across the floor. "No" Zayn yelled, shaking his head. He knew it was Paul. "I don't want to see him."

He got no pity from the villains, as they each laughed at him. Tierra changed into Paul and said "this is what Paul looked like before the torture."

"And this is what he looks like now" Rebecca finished, shoving the man's dead body into the room. Peter helped his friend hold up the deceased man, so Zayn could get a better look at him. A scream left Zayn's mouth and he shut his eyes. If he screamed loud enough he could block out the laughs from his captors.

A cloth from Trish's shirt was pushed into his mouth, preventing the boy from yelling. Trish shoved the cloth further in his throat till the boy started to gag. "You are so annoying" Natalie groaned, massaging her ears. "And very loud."

"You will sit up and look at Paul. You will not make a sound unless I tell you too" Peter commanded, removing his hands from his ears. The cloth was roughly pulled from the boy's mouth. All Zayn could do was cry silently. He knew though, no matter how hard he cried Paul wouldn't come back. At least the man was free from the pain, unlike himself.

There was not much left of Paul. His face was torn to shreds with both his eyes hanging out. All his teeth and lower jaw were missing and Zayn could only guess the amount of agony his friend went through last night. Paul's lower body was practically gone, all Zayn could see was bone and muscle.

Peter applauded Rebecca and Trish's work, clapping each of them on the back. "Zayn, thank Rebecca and Trish for teaching Paul a lesson."

Through gritted teeth the boy thanked them. He felt as though he was betraying Paul, but he had no control. All he could do was mourn his friend, and plan his revenge. Peter might be able to control him, but he couldn't crush Zayn's spirit.

Evan excused himself shortly after to check on his army. He bid his friends a farewell, promising to meet up with them for lunch.

The rest of the morning was a blur for Zayn. He could not comprehend why all the bad stuff was happening to him. He shut down his mind and body, and slumped against his chair. All he wanted was to be alone so he could properly mourn Paul.

Eventually Trish grew bored of messing with Zayn and headed out of the cell with Rebecca to get breakfast.

Peter, Natalie and Tierra took a lot longer to leave. They seemed to be catching up on the past few weeks. They were deep in conversation, when Zayn sniffled.

The villains turned towards him, their voices both dying down. "He is pretty cute, when he isn't covered in blood and dirt" Tierra commented, staring at the boy.

"I bet he would have been a model if the Fearsome Five didn't destroy the world" Peter guessed, messing with Zayn's hair.

"You know what would be fun, making Zayn get together with people we choose. You know that cute prisoner Zac, we should make them hook up. It can be our own personal love story" Natalie suggested, giving Peter her best smile.

Peter didn't even hesitate before responding "well you know how much I love dumb love stories. Let's do it."

"As long as I get some action I can't oppose" Tierra said, agreeing to the plan.

The two girls cleaned Zayn off, giving him a new pair of clothes. Peter meanwhile styled Zayn's hair, giving it a white streak at the front of it. "We need to get you ready for your date" Natalie gushed, wiping the grime off of Zayn's face.

When the villains finished, Zayn looked like his old self. He was clean and was washed away of last night's events. He was led out of the cell to a small picnic table, where Tierra was putting on a tablecloth.

Natalie ran to the chef to get a meal for the date, and came back with sandwiches and a very confused Rebecca and Trish.

Once the table was deemed perfect Zac was brought out, and he conveniently was not wearing a shirt. "Since there are no longer movies and films, we decided to make our own" Peter explained to Trish and Rebecca. "If you guys have any plot suggestions you can give them to Nat, she is writing them down in her notebook."

Rebecca and Trish seemed on board with the plan and both gave suggestions of what to have the two boys do. After a solid plot was drawn out, the friends all sat in a circle around Zayn and Zac.

Peter commanded them to start the date, forcing them to follow the script that Natalie had created. Zayn was beyond humiliated, but he could not protest. He just prayed his real boyfriends would come rescue him.


	15. No More Pain

The humiliation of having to kiss another boy who was not his boyfriend filled Zayn. He wanted to be intimate with his fellow Freedom Fighters, not Zac. The constant giggling from the villains also made him feel even more shitty about the situation. His cheeks lit up a bright red, when Zac’s hand began to roam down his chest. It felt wrong and he just wanted it to stop.

 

Tears filled in Zayn’s eyes when Zac’s hand grazed his belly. He wanted it all to stop, this was too much. Rebecca seemed to read his mind and requested that her friends stop. She quietly explained “we may be bad, but I won’t force two people to get intimate. I won’t support rape of any kind.”

 

“You’re right” Natalie agreed, the smile falling from her face. “This is too far. We will just keep it PG from now on.” The others murmured in agreement, and Zayn couldn’t help but feel relieved. At least the villains knew when to draw the line. 

 

The heat began to take its toll on the villains. The constant beating of the sun exhausted Tierra and Peter. They left the benched area and headed back to the tents to escape the heat. They planned to take a short nap to regain the lost energy from the sun’s rays.

 

Rebecca headed over to a shady tree to draw and Natalie followed her, pulling a book out of her bag. Whenever there was a quiet moment, the girls liked to read and draw. It gave them some comfort, and let them feel somewhat human and normal. They could forget the past.

 

All that left was Zayn, Zac, and Trish. “Thank you for stopping us from going further” Zayn gratified, staring at Trish. “Are you going to take us back to our cells?”

 

“No” answered Trish, staring at her nails. She jumped up from the ground, pulling Zayn up. “We are gonna have some more fun.” Together they took Zac back to the prison, throwing him inside the cell. “Do you promise to not and try to escape. Remember I have everyone’s powers and I am not afraid to use them.”

 

“I won’t try anything” Zayn promised, wishing he was back in his cell. He did not want to be stuck alone with the girl. Trish was the unpredictable one, if he had to choose a villain to get stuck with it would be Rebecca. He was led to the outside of the camp where there was a small pond. He wondered if this was how he was going to die. 

 

Trish sat down near the edge and indicted for Zayn to sit next to her. “You must have many questions about us” she started “I know I would. You have gone through hell these past few weeks. You must want some answers.”

 

Zayn was quiet for a moment. He didn’t know if the girl was being serious. “Why are you being nice to me?”

 

“I wouldn’t call it nice. You have a right to know about us and our story. Ask me a question and I shall answer to the best of my ability.”

 

Zayn thought for a moment and went with the most obvious question. “Why do you want to cause death and destruction?”

 

“Boring” Trish groaned, kicking her foot in the water. “Be creative, this is a once and lifetime thing.”

 

“Fine, how did you guys meet?”

 

“Better” she complimented. She turned her body towards Zayn. “I am not sure if the others would want me to tell the story, but I do like stirring up trouble.”

 

Closing her eyes, the girl leaned back into the grass almost debating if she should say anything. “You’ll be dead soon anyway so why not” she declared, sounding a little too serious for Zayn’s liking. “My friends and I grew up in a small town secluded from any big city. We lived off the land with the other townspeople and mostly kept to ourselves. I lived in a little shack with my parents, as did the others. But our peace came to an end as quickly as it started.”

 

_ Light seeped through Trish’s hut, waking the girl from her slumber. She was always an early bird, and began getting dressed for the day. Her village was small with a population of about 30 people. Everybody was nice and she was lucky enough to have 8 people there around her age. From those 8 kids around the ages of 10, she had her best friends Natalie, Rebecca, Peter, and Tierra. They had practically grown up together, since each of them were born in that village only months apart. _

 

_ She walked down to the farming fields and picked some fresh fruit to eat for breakfast. The village had a weekly system of who did what jobs. Today half of the adults like Trish’s parents would do the farming and the others would hunt and scavenge for food. It also the day the kids had school much to Trish’s dismay. Her favorite day was when she could go fishing. School was nothing special just a once a week thing where they went over basic information. It was mostly around to make sure the kids remembered the old world. Their village was fortunate enough to have a teacher from before the Fearsome Five attack.  _

 

_ The rooster croaked signaling it was time for the rest of the village to get up. She watched sleepy men and women leaving their huts, setting out to do the duties of the day. Once she saw Rebecca emerge from her hut, she ran over. “Did you do your homework?” Rebecca asked her friend, already knowing the answer. _

 

_ “Girl you know my motto. I don’t ever do homework.” _

 

_ “You want to copy mine” she offered, opening up her bag. Trish shook her head no, she was too lazy to even attempt to copy. Besides she forgot her paper and pens at her hut, and was not going to turn around and get them. _

 

_ As Rebecca went to shut her bag, Natalie snatched up the homework. “Well since you offered I may as well copy it.” Her pen moved across her notebook as she wrote down the answers to the questions.  _

 

_ When Peter and Tierra found them, they joined in on the copying. “Does anybody do their goddamn homework?” Rebecca groaning, regretting her offer of allowing Trish to copy. _

 

_ “We don’t need too since you do it for us” Peter responded earning a chuckle from everybody, but Rebecca.  _

 

_ The friends made their way to their class which was just chairs outside with a chalkboard. It wasn’t much, but the classes did their job.  _

 

_ Trish noted that Evan’s seat was empty, which filled her with some relief. Evan could be an arrogant asshole, who thought he was better than everybody else. He only felt this way because his dad was leader of the village.  _

 

_ “Mr. Evan will not be joining us today” the teacher announced, after everybody took their seats. “Today he will be training with his father on how to take over the village.” _

 

_ A groan left Trish’s mouth that was much louder than expected. She didn’t want Evan to be their new leader. Everybody pretty much hated him, and he had no friends, but that was something the boy was unaware of. In his mind he was the most popular person in the village. When he took over as leader of the village, Trish just planned to avoid him everyday. It was the best plan a child could come up with. _

 

_ The lecture began with only Rebecca taking notes. Trish began passing notes with Peter, as Tierra fell asleep against her desk. Natalie was somewhat paying attention, but Trish could tell she was beginning to grow bored. _

 

_ It was the gunshots from the farming fields that snapped Trish back to reality. “Everybody run to the bunker” the teacher ordered, grabbing a gun from under the chalkboard.  _

 

_ Natalie took the position of line leader, and guided the students to their hidden bunker. The sound of gunfire drew closer and this time Trish could hear the screams of people getting hit. It was almost slow motion as she watched a bullet fly by her and hit a fellow student through the chest. The girl dropped dead to the ground, forcing Trish to stop dead in her tracks. _

 

_ Staring at the dead body, she felt a wave of sadness wash over her. The safe village she grew up in was no more. She felt a hand grasp her, and looked up to see Rebecca pulling her forward. “We need to move Trish” she yelled, beginning to chase after the others. _

 

_ She allowed herself to be dragged and tried to ignore the blood on her shirt. She glanced behind just in time to see the teacher get shot through the head. A scream left her mouth, but she continued to move. She worried about the safety of her parents, but her main focus was on getting to the bunker. _

 

_ “Run in zig zags” Natalie told the others, as more bullets whizzed by them. Everyone did as they were told, running around in different directions. Bullets whizzed by Trish and Rebecca, but neither of them were hit. They were the first to reach the bunker and together they opened the door.  _

 

_ They yelled at the others to hurry up as the gunmen drew closer. Tierra and Peter had just made it into the doorway when Natalie screamed out in pain. Trish looked over in time to see a bullet go through her leg. Her left leg started bleeding profusely and she could no longer walk. She toppled over to the ground, attempting to cover her gunshot wound. _

 

_ Without a second of hesitation, Peter ran to Natalie’s side and scooped her up. He carried her to the bunker bridal style. Once they were all safely inside, the door was slammed shut and locked. They assumed the other kids were dead or ran the other way. All that could be heard was Natalie’s whimpers of pain and the gunshots from outside the door. _

 

_ They knew the bunker wouldn’t keep out the bad guys for much longer. The friends spent their final moments together, each talking about their favorite memories. It was when Natalie finally passed out from blood loss that the door was pried open.  _

 

_ Trish and the others were dragged by their hair, to the center of the village. She screamed and fought against the restraint, but she was just a weak child. She could see everybody who was still alive had been rounded up. The gunmen lined them up in groups of 6 and took the first group up to the front. In that group was Trish’s parents. In a blink of an eye, the intruders opened fire and Trish couldn’t help but sobbed when the bullets tore her parents apart. She scrunched up her fists, letting the feeling of anger and resentment take over.  _

 

_ When the next group was lined up to be shot, Trish grew more angry. As the people dropped dead, it didn’t even phase her. Trish had lost two of the most important people in her life, she wasn’t about to let these people take her friends’ lives as well. _

 

_ She didn’t even realize that the whole village was dead until she was escorted into the line. The blood from the dead seeped into her shoes, making her want to throw up. Her and the others were going to be the last group to die. It was now or never to try something. She glanced over at her friends to see Natalie barely being able to stand and Rebecca full on sobbing. Tierra and Peter were cursing up a storm, but each had tears running down their face. They were in no condition to fight and Trish came to the realization that this was the end.   _

 

_ The guns were slowly raised and aimed at the kids, she had run out of time. But when the guns went off, they were not the ones being hit. From behind the intruders stood Evan and his father, each holding assault guns in their hand. Together they mowed down the gunmen, but not before getting shot at themselves. _

 

_ Evan managed to dodge the bullet aimed at him, but his father was not as lucky. He was hit in his gut and spent his last few moments of life taking out the rest of the bad guys. As he fell backwards towards the ground, Evan caught him. “No please don’t die” the boy begged, pressing on his father’s wound. _

 

_ The man coughed up blood and stared lovingly at his son. “I am so proud of you” he wheezed, the blood beginning to fill his lungs. “It is your turn to lead now. Find any survivors and take them somewhere safe. Protect them with your life.” Evan promised to do as his father asked. The man smiled, and squeezed Evan’s hand one last time. He took one last breath before the life left his eyes.  _

 

_ Evan cried over his father’s body for about a minute, then he sat up and wiped away the tears. “We will mourn once we are safe” he said emotionless, walking over to Trish. “You have seem to be the only survivors.” He stopped at Natalie, who was in and out of consciousness. “We should leave her behind. She will only get in the way and slow us down.” _

 

_ “Hell no” Peter yelled, standing defensively in front of the girl. “You are not the boss of me. How about you go your own way and we will go our own way.” _

 

_ “We must stick together.” _

 

_ “Then Natalie is coming with us. We just need to stop the bleeding.” _

 

_ “Fine” Evan agreed, inspecting the injured girl’s leg. Seeing it up close, he realized the wound wasn’t that bad. The bullet went through her leg and it didn’t hit an artery. All he had to do was stitch it up and she would be as good as new.  _

 

_ The medical hut was where Evan headed to grab the supplies he needed to fix Natalie up. He poured alcohol over the wound, glad the girl was unconscious. He stitched up the wound next, finishing in record time.  _

 

_ “Thank you” Trish said once he finished. Her whole outlook on Evan changed that day. He was no longer the asshole she got annoyed of. On that day Evan became her friend and everyone became bonded for life. _

 

_ They became their own group and family. They needed nobody else in the world just each other. On that day a burning hatred for people formed for each of them and they swore to rid the world of everyone, but each other. _

 

_ With so many dead, the group did not have enough time or energy to bury everyone. When Natalie woke up, they said goodbye to their loved ones and burned the village down. The fire ignited in their hearts as they walked away from the only home they had ever known.  _

 

Trish finished her story and looked at Zayn, trying to gauge his reaction. He seemed unphased and moved on to the next question. “How did you get your powers?”

 

“That is a question for another day” she responded, standing up. “It's time we head back, the others are probably looking for us.”

 

The walk back was silent and gave Zayn time to let the villain’s story sink in. He wanted to feel sorry for her, but after the hell they put him through he lost all pity. They passed Rebecca and Natalie sitting under the tree. 

 

The girls waved at Trish, which gave Zayn the chance to find the scar on Natalie’s leg. It was an ugly scar that stuck out like a sore thumb. He was surprised he hadn’t noticed it before. “We have some good news for you Zayn” Natalie announced, shutting her book. Zayn sighed and began picturing the torture he was about to endure. “After talking it over with the others, we have decided to stop torturing you. It has gotten kinda boring since all you do is cry.”

 

“Are you going to kill me?”

 

“No silly, you still have a purpose” Natalie giggled, stretching out her legs. “But don’t think you aren’t expendable.”

 

“What is my purpose, then?”

 

Rebecca answered “you are going to help us catch and kill your boyfriends.” 

 

Zayn wanted to say something rude back, but he didn’t. Today had been a small victory for him. He didn’t need to worry about the constant pain he had to endure. Now he could use his time trying to find out everything about these new villains. The more information he had, the better chance he had of figuring out their weaknesses. 

 

Natalie was the one to take Zayn back to his cell. She stopped at the kitchen and allowed him to get some food and water. He thanked the girl and shoved the food into his mouth. As they walked, Zayn grew some courage. “How did you get that scar?” he asked, causing the girl to stop dead in her tracks.

 

“Is it that noticeable?”

 

He nodded his head yes. “Way to make a girl feel good” she replied sarcastically. “If you must know my scar came from an animal attack.”

 

When she finished her lie, Zayn was placed back in his cell. He made a mental note of how Natalie couldn’t handle the past. This was something he might be able to use against her in the future. He also found out that Natalie wasn’t a very good liar. As he laid down on the cot, Zayn was filled with hope. He believed he could escape from here and get back with the others.

  
  



	16. The Light Goes Out

The army all stood around the podium where Caroline was giving her speech. Her face was grim as she announced her plans to begin planning for an attack. She knew there would be no point in tracking down the villains. They would come to her and she wanted to be ready for they did. A careful watch would be put in effect to ensure nobody was taken, and switched with the shapeshifter. She sent out her trusted generals to go to small camps in the surrounding areas in the hopes of recruiting new soldiers. The army needed all the people they could get.

Their tiny base needed to be fortified for the upcoming attack she knew was bound to happen. There was a lot riding on this fight. To her this battle was revenge for the death of her friends, to the lads it was a rescue mission. The biggest obstacle for her at the time being was the language barrier between her and the Germans. But that issue had an easy fix. Many people in her army and the German army spoke both languages. She simply divided out the translators, making sure each section of her army could understand what was happening. 

When the meeting wrapped up, Caroline set off to supply the soldiers with weapons. Her armoury was overflowing with weapon, but she did not have enough for everyone. Using the city to her advantage, she sent out a small group of soldiers to find any sort of weapons in the nearby buildings. Liam went with the group wanting to help in anyway he could. 

Louis stayed close to Caroline, never once leaving her side. The woman saw no issue with this, wanting to keep him safe. Now that they were reunited there was no way Caroline would let Louis put himself in harm’s way. The two sent Niall and Harry to help fortify the camp, adding protective walls around the stadium they slept in. It wouldn’t stop the villains, but it would slow down their army. 

By nightfall, the barrier was completed and Liam came back with 30 usable guns. Caroline called the day a success and awaited for her generals to come back with new recruits. 9 of her 10 generals returned each bringing about 50 people. 

When the last general came back it was the dead of night, with many of the soldiers fast asleep. She ran into camp, not caring who she woke up. What she saw needed to be reported to Caroline. 

Lucky for her, Caroline was awake and sitting at a large table drinking a cup of coffee. “I’ve been waiting for you to come back” she said as the general approached. “Care to tell me what took you so long.”

The girl sat down in the seat beside the leader and started to cry. “The villains are here.”

“Well that was fast. I thought we would at least get a week. Were they at the village?”

“Yes” she answered, hoping her hands would stop shaking. “It seemed they were under mind control.”

“What is the size of their army?”

“Nearly the same as ours, maybe bigger. I didn’t get a good look.”

Caroline took another sip of her coffee and leaned back in the chair. She could attempt to sneak attack them, but she did not want to lead her people into a trap. The villains must know where their base is at, if they knew to come to New York. Maybe a rescue mission to get Zayn would be the best option. Right now they had the element of surprise. If they went right now as the villains slept, they could save Zayn.

“Go wake up Roberts” Caroline ordered, dumping out the rest of her drink. “I need to get the lads. We have a rescue mission to plan.”

It took the lads zero time to wake up when they heard the possibility of getting their boyfriend back. They seemed more than eager to go on the mission, not caring of the risks. The rescue team comprised of Niall, Harry, Roberts, and the general who found villains, Holly. It was decided to have Liam and Louis stay back in case things went south. Besides Caroline was not going to let Louis out her sights and Liam had the German army to command. As much as Louis and Liam wanted to go they had other responsibilities. They argued to go, but in the end stayed behind. The second the rescue team left, Louis and Liam paced the campground beyond worried for their boyfriends.

The rescue team dressed in all black and snuck out of the camp. Holly lead the group, making sure to take the paths where they could easily hide in the shadows. She and Roberts both had guns with a silencer so if they fired the weapon it would be quiet and not give away their position. Luck seemed to be on their side for them the moon was hidden by the clouds, giving them even more cover. 

She sensed no signs of danger as they left the city and continued onwards. No one spoke during their journey. She could only hear Harry heavy breathing from his pent up anger. Even Roberts did not attempt to calm the boy, his anger gave him power. When they reached the village where the villains were, the group hid in the bushes by the edge of the site. Holly could count about 20 people on guard, who would stand no chance against the wrath of Harry. She could sense how anxious he was to attack the campsite.

After they observed the villains for a good half an hour, they crept back into the woods to form a plan. “I saw about 20 guys on watch” Roberts reported, making sure to keep his voice low. 

“I think I know where Zayn is being kept” Holly added, feeling the gazes of Niall and Harry on her. “There was a building that had about 5 guards in front of it. I’m guessing that is where the prisoners are being kept.”

“Well then let’s go save him” Harry said, standing up only to be pulled down by Roberts.

He shushed the boy. “We need to form a plan before we go into the camp. I think we should split up.” He waited for anybody to object. The others stayed quiet so Roberts continued with his plan. “Holly and Niall should go to where they think Zayn is and me and Harry can distract the soldiers on watch. We need to remember we aren’t here to fight. This is a quick in and out mission. That means keeping the killing to a minimum, and not going to far into the village.”

“What happens if Zayn isn’t in the building?” Niall asked.

“Then we head back out into the woods. Our meetup place is where we are now. We meet back here in 10 minutes and if you aren’t back then you will be left. No matter what happens don’t get caught.”

Harry groaned in frustration and Niall could tell he was beginning to get angry. “I am not leaving here without Zayn.”

“Me neither” Niall agreed, not caring if he died saving his boyfriend. He would do whatever it took to free Zayn.

“God damn it” Roberts growled. “Do you two realize how valuable you are? You two can’t take on these new villains by yourself. You have no idea what their powers are or what they look like. If you guys try putting up a fight you will end up getting yourselves killed, Zayn, and the whole Freedom Fighters army. Is that what you want?”

“Obviously that is not what we want” Harry huffed, crossing his arms.

“Then stick to the plan. And if we can, I want to take one of these soldiers as a hostage. Maybe we could get some useful information out of them.”

Everybody nodded their heads silently, each agreeing to the plan. Holly wished she had stayed back with Caroline, where it was safe. She didn’t know any of these people and she had a bad feeling that the plan wasn’t going to work. 

Niall and her set off towards where they believed Zayn was being held. They crept in the shadows of the buildings, avoiding the guards as they went. When one got near them, they heard Harry make a rustling sound in the woods. The guard took off in the direction of the sound, leaving Holly and Niall. 

The door to the supposed prison had three soldiers in front of it, each holding a gun. As Niall tiptoed forward, he used his power to control the men’s arms to knock each other out. The men watched helplessly as they smacked their heads against the butts of their guns. Holly made sure to catch their unconscious bodies in order to prevent to much noise from happening. 

When they reached the inside of the prison Niall set off to find Zayn. Holly stayed behind, not being able to comprehend the kind blond boy being able to control people. She couldn’t believe how easily he had done it, without even batting an eyelash. 

She heard Niall scream the missing boy’s name. As much as she wanted to shush him, she couldn’t bring herself to do so. In all honesty Niall scared her and she didn’t want to put herself on his radar. All Holly wanted to do was get back to Caroline and sleep safely in her bed. 

Niall darted from cell to cell, ignoring everyone who was not Zayn. He did not have time to help them, his only goal was freeing his boyfriend. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he stumbled across Zayn’s cage. All of Niall’s worries vanished, when he saw his boyfriend alive and well. 

The lock on cell was easy to get off, the boy simply froze it over and broke it with his fist. Zayn couldn’t grasp what was happening, after so much torment he did not believe he was being freed. At first he thought it was a joke Tierra was pulling on him, but he soon realized it was the real Niall when they kissed. Only Niall could kiss like that and make him swoon. In those precious moments, Zayn forgot all the bad stuff that had happened to him. “I am breaking you out” Niall told him once he broke the kiss. “Stay behind me and make sure to keep quiet.”

The two walked by the other cells, and Zayn felt guilt rise in his chest. These people were suffering the same fate as him. He slowed down to try and help them, but Niall wasn’t having any of that. “You are the important one here” the blond said, tugging Zayn’s arm. “You can help them by killing the new villains.”

Zayn didn’t want to leave them, but he gave into Niall. He wanted out of this place and to be in the arms of his boyfriends. In the hallway waiting for them was a young woman, who Zayn assumed came with Niall. She visibly jumped when Niall walked by her, but seemed very happy to be exiting the prison. 

The guards that were on patrol all seemed to be missing or on the ground dead. The woods became closer with each passing step and Zayn could almost taste his freedom. He squeezed the blond’s hand, ready to leave behind the nightmare. He hoped when he got back to Niall’s campsite, Peter’s control would be broken. He wanted to be able to use his powers again, especially against the people who had made his life a living hell.

“Did you really think it would be this easy?” Peter’s voice rang out, coming from right behind Zayn. The boy’s heart sank, and his hope began to dwindle.

“Niall run” Zayn screamed, grasping his hand. He knew that voice, it haunted him every night. From behind one of the trees came Natalie and Trish, as Zayn went to turn directions he saw Tierra and Rebecca. And behind them was Peter, who stood with a smirk on his face. Holly, Niall and Zayn were surrounded and Zayn just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. 

Unlike Zayn, Niall jumped into action sending a water pulse at each villain. Each pulse hit its mark, sending the enemies sprawling onto the ground. Rebecca was the first to get up, her face which was normally sweet gave off sinister vibes. She pulled out her notebook and opened it up to a blank page. “Don’t let her draw” Zayn shouted, regaining his composure. 

Holly nodded her head and turned the safety off her gun. She aimed her weapon at the girl and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew towards Rebecca's chest, but was pushed off course when a sonic wave hit it. Instantly Niall was reminded of the old Fearsome Five villain Ed, who had the same ability. Holly fired the gun again this time firing off more than one shot. “Die you bastard” she yelled, hoping at least one bullet would hit its target.

Rebecca didn’t seem that phased by the oncoming bullets. Trish’s hand left Ed’s bone on her necklace and went over to Zayn’s fingernail. From her hand came a large flame which she tossed at the bullets. In a split second the impending doom that was flying towards Rebecca was destroyed. Trish turned her attention to Holly and threw a fireball at her.

Seeing the flaming death come hurling towards her, she quickly rolled out of the way and reloaded the gun. Niall took the opportunity to throw ice shards at Trish and Rebecca. “Zayn why aren’t you helping?” the blond asked, watching as Trish burned up his attack. He took a second to glance behind him to see Zayn hugging his knees against his chest.

“I can’t use my power” Zayn answered, pointing towards Peter. “He has the ability of controlly whoever he pleases.” Niall felt sadness staring at the state his boyfriend was in. Whatever the villains had done to him, made him a whole new person. All Niall wanted to do was get Zayn away from the enemies. 

Niall took a second to comprehend what Zayn had said, before focusing his main attack on Peter. He sent a wave of water towards the boy, who had yet to get up from the first attack. “Look out” Natalie yelled, trying to warn her friend. The water smacked into Peter with full force, and fille his mouth with water. He coughed and tried to catch his breath.

The ground around the villains was wet, and Niall took the opportunity to freeze them all in place. Clunks of ice wrapped around their legs, holding their bodies in place. To be extra safe, he froze over Peter’s mouth. Now he didn’t need to worry about being controlled. “You guys are nothing compared to the Fearsome Five” Niall finally said, taking the short lived peace to catch his breath. “You are all bark and no bite.”

“Don’t underestimate us just yet” Trish responded, once again touching Zayn’s fingernail on her necklace. Her whole body erupted in flames causing the ice around her to melt. “Are you really that stupid that you came by yourself?”

“No” Harry answered, flying down next to Niall. The two boys went back to back, putting Zayn in the center of them. They knew Zayn was not in the right mind to fight. 

“Anybody else gonna join you?” Trish questioned. Her question was answered when a bullet brushed by her head from the tree tops. “I see” she responded, looking in the direction of where the bullet came from. 

A ragged cry left Natalie’s mouth as her whole body gave off a powerful green light. She broke through the ice and raised her hand in the air. From the trees and grass came more green, and Niall knew she was sucking the life out of the plants. She seemed to be building up the energy in order to attack. Harry read his mind and sent a blast of wind towards her. Trish swatted the wind away, using Harry’s own power against him.

Trish switched back to Zayn’s power and melted the ice around her friends. Once freed, they each jumped into action. Natalie smiled evilly at the boys, as she finished collecting the life out of the nearby wildlife. She brought her hands together and sent a beam of pure green energy at them. The green blast struck Niall in his shoulder and went through his body to go through Harry’s shoulder as well. They fell to the ground, both yelling in pain. Both shoulders had a large hole in it, with blood pouring out. 

Holly and Roberts attempted to give them cover, as Niall healed himself and Harry. They fired their guns at the enemy, aiming wildly and unpredictably. The bullets whizzed towards the villains, but a protective pink shield formed around them, stopping the threat dead in their tracks. 

Natalie sulked over to Niall and placed her hand on his head. He felt his energy begin to dwindle and no matter how hard he fought it, she didn’t let up. Harry sent a blast of wind at her, but his shoulder wound prevented him from doing any real damage. As Niall’s skin began to turn gray, he felt the girl’s hand leave his head. He looked over the see Zayn tackle Natalie to the ground. 

“EVERYBODY FREEZE” Peter’s voice rang out, causing a silence to sweep over the battlefield. 

“Took you long enough to catch your breath” Tierra muttered, but Peter could hear how shaky her voice was.

“Person in the tree please come over here and sit down next to your friends.”

He heard the sound of a tree rustling as the man climbed down. Roberts came walking into the camp and sat down next to Zayn who was still on top of Natalie. “I want you to all sit in a circle and throw down your weapons.” Zayn’s eyes glazed over as he got off of the girl and sat down cross legged.

The others followed suit with Holly and Roberts throwing down their guns. “I promise you next time it won’t be so easy, you threw us off guard. Also Tierra and me were tired and had just woke up. Why couldn’t you do your rescue mission in the morning, when I was awake?”

Natalie stood up and wiped the dirt off of her clothes. “What are we going to do with them?” she asked, going over to her friends.

“I vote we kill them” Tierra suggested. Rebecca nodded her head in agreement. Less of them meant less trouble for her and her friends. 

Peter looked over at the others. “Anybody have any objections to killing them?” When nobody objected, he smiled. “Looks like it is decided then.” He walked over to his new prisoners and crouched down. “What’s wrong Niall? You are looking a little gray.”

“Unfreeze me and we will see who has the last laugh” Niall spat. He began to heal his shoulder, but did not have enough energy to help Harry. 

As the wound started to close up, Peter commanded for the blond to stop healing. “How am I supposed to kill you if you can heal?”

“Don’t touch him” Harry growled “if you need to kill somebody then I volunteer.”

“No kill me” Zayn begged. This was not how he imagined the rescue mission going. Just when he got a glimmer of hope, it was crushed. “Please do whatever you want with me, just leave the others.”

“You guys are so cute it is making me sick” Trish gagged, wanting to get the night over with. The faster they were dead, the sooner she could go back to sleep. “All your mushy shit is giving me a headache.”

Peter agreed, “you are not allowed to speak, but I will allow you to silently cry.” His eyes crept over to Zayn, and he couldn’t help but frown at the boy. “Well it looks like you served your purpose. But I have one final task for you, before I dispose you. I want to kill Niall and burn his body till there is nothing left but ash.”

If the Freedom Fighters could talk, they would all be crying and pleading. All they could do was whimper and cry quietly. Zayn stood up with his body already covered in flames. Every set towards the blond was pure torture. He would happily take an eternity of pain if it meant not hurting his boyfriend. Niall closed his eyes and accepted his fate. At least he was going to be killed by his boyfriend. If he was going to die, all he wanted was for Zayn to know it wasn’t his fault. 

Zayn stopped in front of Niall and his whole body froze in place. Unlike the other times when he was under control, his whole body and mind agreed that they would never hurt Niall. “Do it” Peter ordered again, beginning to lose patience. 

The fogginess in the boy’s mind began to clear a little. Just enough for him to gain some control of his body. The struggle to gain control of his body was temporarily won. “No” he screamed out “I will not hurt him.” Before his mind went numb again, he put out the flames on his body.

Harry released the breath his was holding, but they weren’t out of danger yet. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break Peter’s control. He could only watch in horror as Peter stormed over Zayn. “You bore me now” he declared, pulling out a knife. All Harry could do was protest quietly when Peter slit Zayn’s throat open. “Now your purpose is done.” Zayn collapsed to the ground, his eyes wide with fear and pain.

The villains laughed as Zayn squirmed around with his throat bleeding out. His breaths were watery and he began to choke on the blood. “Remember Niall no healing. All you can do is watch him bleed to death.”

The blond’s vision blurred with tears as he helplessly watched one of the love’s of his life bleed to death. He couldn’t even comfort Zayn and it broke his heart. Harry was going through similar emotion, but he felt something more powerful than heartbreak. It was rage and the desire to kill. 

Zayn’s movements became less sporadic. “I love you guys” he gargled out, staring at his two weeping boyfriends. In his last moments he thought of the pond in Germany, when everything was perfect. He wished he could have seen Louis and Liam one last time. He wished he could have done a lot more things. He planned on marrying the lads and living the rest of his life with them. 

He was so sleepy and his eyes felt so heavy. He took one final look at the two people he loved with all his heart. All of his life passed before his eyes. He saw his parents and his old village and felt his body being called home. The memories went to when he first met the lads and how their relationship slowly grew. He wished he had more time, but at least he got those few precious months with them. 

Even though his body was numb, his heart was warm from the love of his boyfriends. His chest rose one final time and Zayn released his last breath. The eyes stared lifelessly at Niall and Harry, never to blink or move again. 

A cry of agony escaped Harry’s mouth. All he saw was red and he let his anger fuel him. In his mind all he saw was red, and he easily broke through Peter’s control. He sent a blast of wind so powerful it blasted each villain off their feet and sent them flying over 20 feet away. 

Peter’s concentration broke on everyone, releasing them from his control. Niall crawled over to Zayn and worked on healing his neck. No matter how much water he pressed down on the wound, it wouldn’t close up. “Zayn, you promised to never leave” Niall sobbed, shaking the deceased boy. He tried again and again to bring back Zayn. He slowly came to terms that Zayn wasn’t coming back, sending him into a crying mess against Zayn’s chest. “Come back to me” he whimpered, not wanting to picture a world without Zayn. 

Harry went to finish off Peter, when Roberts grabbed him by the shoulder. “We need to leave now” he yelled over the powerful wind. 

“No, not until they pay.”

“You are going to end up getting you and Niall killed. We need to leave now or we may not get the chance again. Please Harry, think of Niall.”

The winds died down, as he glanced over to the sobbing figure of the blond. With a heavy heart, he agreed with Roberts. Each step he took towards Zayn, he felt a tiny piece of him die. He gently picked Zayn up bridal style and cuddled him against his chest. His boyfriend’s cold body laid limp against him, but Harry ignored it. “We need to go to the meetup place” Roberts commanded, trying to act strong. He grabbed Harry by the arm and pulled him towards the trees. Holly did the same with Niall, practically dragging him away from the villain’s camp. They ran into the woods, and Roberts stopped to get the hostage he managed to knock unconscious. 

When they made it to the meetup point. Harry had stand on large boulders, which he levitated into the sky. They flew towards Caroline’s base in complete silence. Niall sobbed loudly on the rock, not caring who heard him.The only person who spoke was Harry and it was to Zayn. “We are almost home” he whispered. “Wait till you see Caroline’s base, it is an old sports stadium.”

They landed in the middle of the field at the stadium and were quickly surrounded by a worried Liam and Louis. It was so dark out, they had yet to notice the blood or sad expressions of the others. “I’m so glad you made it back safely” Louis praised, his voice a lot more happier than it's been in a while. “The five of us are finally back together. Now the bad guys stand no chance against us.”

“Zayn, I am so sorry it took us so long to rescue you” Liam added. “But I am so happy to have you back.” When neither boy received any response they grew concerned. “Why isn’t anybody speaking?” Liam questioned, taking a step closer. 

Caroline came running over with a torch, lighting up the scene in front of Louis and Liam. The first thing Liam noticed was the blood. His gaze slowly went up to see Niall weeping on the ground. Then he finally saw the thing he had been dreading the most. “No no no no no” he muttered to himself. “This can’t be happening. How the hell did you let this happen?” he yelled at Harry, not meaning to take out his anger on him. 

A sob escaped Louis as his knees buckled. He threw up his dinner and crawled over to grasp Zayn’s cold hand. “He isn’t dead, he is just sleeping” he said to himself, trying to convince himself that nothing bad happened. He pinched his arm, hoping it was all just a bad dream. Never in his life did imagine he would lose one of the lads.

Louis’s worst nightmare came true. He blamed himself for not going on the rescue mission. He should have been there. He should have been the one to die. Louis’s world was crashing around him and he knew nothing was ever going to be the same again.


End file.
